When You Fall: I Will Catch You
by NovaShifter15
Summary: A single moment in her forgotten and hard life, gave her everything. A friend, a war, life and death experience, and heartfelt moments Oh, and metal aliens from space. But most importantly, someone to care about her. For Prowl, it reminded him how to care about someone after rough past experience. And 'something' might blossom. Well, if something doesn't explode first, that is...
1. Chapter 1

It would have been a peaceful night . . . if the sky hadn't exploded.

But my story actually begins exactly a day and a half before then, on the last day of school, five minutes into my walk home.

I had just started my walk when I noticed there was someone trailing a few paces behind me, three someone's I came to realize. Now granted, a lot of kids walk in this general area, so this could just be normal. But what had me worried was the three kids in just _happened_ to be.

Three boys, Antonio, Marcus and Liam. The names sound like your everyday teens, but you know how they say anyone can be an everyday hero? Well FYI, people can be everyday villains as well. And that is what the trio was, everyday villains. But no one ever believed me, because these boys got good grades, had a lot of friends, looked friendly. On top of that, they were all athletes and they all dressed nicely. They would pay attention in class and be respectful to the teachers, they weren't perverts, and to most people there weren't nicer boys you could find.

But they hated me, for some reason they just did. I might have a lot of friends, I might even make the track team or be favored by teachers as well, if it weren't for them.

See, if someone is disliked by some of the most popular people in school, you instantly become the least popular person in school. Again, their reasons for disliking me are unclear. It might be because they think I'm strange. I sometimes say the wrong things, or things that just don't make any sense, but I never really know what to say, I don't get a lot of social practice. You see, I've been in the same classes as them since day-care, along with everyone else in our school. And the social positions have always been clear to me, them at the top, me at the bottom. It's really the people in the middle who are lucky. The ones that _think_ they have problems.

I'm sure there are kids like me everywhere, they don't get in fights, or think about suicide, or take drugs, they just don't have friends. And they stand there, right at the bottom, holding their head as high as they can while certain kids just try to push it lower. Maybe that isn't you, maybe you're that lucky kid in the middle, normal life, normal parents, normal friends. Or maybe you do struggle socially, and all you really need is a fresh start.

Those were my thoughts as the trio began to catch up. _If only I had a fresh start, then maybe they wouldn't hate me so much. They might even like me._ My thoughts were interrupted by Antonio's shout.

"Hey, Sage!"

I gritted my teeth, but I wheeled around anyways.

"Hey Antonio. Glad it's finally summer, aren't you?" I tried. But he just smirked. Marcus answered me.

"No more school rules, am I right?" He sneered, but it wasn't a question, it was a partial threat.

"Too bad there are still _actual_ laws." I said as a reminder, and warning.

"Oh we aren't planning on anything illegal, just reminding some pasty white girls to remember where their line is." Liam shot. Antonio and Marcus snickered.

Maybe I forgot to mention, I live in New Mexico, around the border, most of the citizens here are Mexicans, so their skin is dark or tan. Mine is a fair white, so I attract looks. And recently there have been illegal border crossings. So a lot of white policeman have been stationed here, and life has been a lot harder for citizens. So that's been another thing they have used against me lately.

"Maybe you forgot our last message." Antonio growled stepping closer.

"Come on guys, why can't you just leave me alone." I complained.

"Were at the top of the school right now, we've always been, for someone to be at the top, someone else has to be on the bottom, you just make it easy." Marcus drawled.

"Plus, it's easier to single out dirty whites rather than another one of our kind." Liam explained with mock sincerity.

"You know, you'd be cleaner if you spread mud on your face, least it would get rid of that ghoul colored skin." Antonio sneered. I felt my eyes grow hot.

"Maybe you have some mud you need to wipe off." I growled back.

This only drew their laughter.

"She's a little bit of racist scum now ain't she." Liam jeered. That was uncalled for, I bent down and scooped up a pebble.

"Oh, you gonna throw it little girly." Marcus taunted. And I did.

I hit Marcus hard in the temple and a line of blood immediately began to drip.

"Three of us tough boys versus one little girl that wants to play nasty. Fair warning Sage. We can play nastier." Antonio hissed taking another warning step towards me. I swallowed and my eyes flew back to Marcus who was wiping blood from his forehead. Liam was smiling like he just got permission to do whatever he wanted. Which was somewhat true since they could attack me, now that I've thrown a rock at them.

Pushing back tears I turned and ran. I heard a shout, and then three running feet behind me. Remember when I said I could've made the track team, well it's not for no good reason. When I run I _really_ run.

I could hear their angry shouts and running feet slowly get quieter. But I kept powering onward. Through streets and neighborhoods. I kept running until I ran up to a fence of a junkyard. I hadn't noticed, but tears were streaming down my face. I collapsed onto the ground in exertion. My breaths came in a bit more ragged than usual. The sun was slowly getting lower in the sky. Nothing broke the silence except my slowing breaths. But then my ears picked up a strange ticking background noise. I frowned, not being able to quite place what it was. But it seemed to be coming from the junkyard.

Curiosity pushing through my pain, I stood and swung open the big silver gate, which creaked and whined in protest. I stepped into the junkyard and was instantly surrounded by mountains of trash. I mean really trash, not what you think a junkyard would be, full of treasure and hidden items. Mostly it was random bits of plastic and food wrappers with the occasional tire or random metal part. But mostly it was just trash. I strained my ears for the ticking noise and began to follow it once I picked it up. I wound corners and then backtracked and went in circles, then finally I found its source, coming from deep within one of the junk piles. I sighed, it had better not be some old watch. I began removing items and trash, I kept pulling out objects and making the hole bigger. At last removed this really big tire and was able to see into the dark little whole I made. A soft blue light and a ticking noise emitted from it. I took a breath and plunged my hand inside, praying it didn't fall and crush my arm.

My hand slipped in, grabbed something disk-like, and shot back out. The disk was bigger than I anticipated and was only a little smaller than I was, but far heavier. It fell to the ground with a little crash and lay still, the blue still glowing around it. It began making the ticking noise again and some pieces lifted, as if it were trying to. . . open.

More ticking and straining, and then suddenly it sprang open with such a surprising force that I jumped back with a yelp.

Whatever it was, began to move. My heartrate began to quicken. It slowly stood and its silhouette was humanoid. I swallowed quietly as it slowly turned towards me. I let out a tiny breath I hadn't realized I'd been holding. The figure was a head shorter than me. The glowing blue was its eyes. Which were bright, and would have been the cutest things I ever saw, were it not for how terrifying the whole ordeal was.

The metal figure cocked its head at me and made clicking and whirring noises. I just stared. My throat went dry and I stopped breathing. I could feel my heart pounding faster and faster and adrenaline coursed through me.

Terror was pouring through me, I had never been this scared, and yet so curious. I hadn't even been this scared when the trio chased me for the first time. I wanted to say something, but I forgot how to talk.

The robot made more clicking noises, and a little whistle at the end. I made a little noise, but it wasn't really words. Then finally my thoughts caught up with me and I began scooting slowly back. The metal figure remained where it was. I continued moving backwards, then I slowly began to stand up. The moment I made that move, it moved. All it did was shift positions but I froze until it stopped and was completely still again. Then I continued standing. Once I had stood up fully, the robot thing was shorter than me, which was slightly more reassuring. Slowing my breathing down I began to slowly approach, reaching my hand out first. Yeah, real smart decision. But it was just one of those times where you didn't get that bad 'run for your life' feeling.

From what I saw so far, it didn't look intent on hurting me. It looked curiously at my fingers and held out its own metal hand. The fingers were covered in silver plating and held together with circular joint. Grease and dirt were stuck in the crevices, making it squeak when it moved. That made me a little sad, it was broken in a way. It must have been stuck in this junkyard for a long time. Now that I've finally freed it, it all dirty and rusty.

I hadn't noticed but it's metal fingers were now right next to my hand as if comparing it. It blinked a few times, then drew it back with another click and whistle.

"You're all dirty." I said quietly, with a small sadness to my voice. It just tilted its head again. I reached forward again to point at some of the rust on his front. It looked down and made a sad noise.

"Can you talk?" I asked. When it sounded sad, it also sounded sentient. It clicked at me.

"That must be how you talk." I realized out loud. The terror was ebbing away, and curiosity was now taking over.

"Where are you from, did someone make you?" I asked, not expecting an answer. The little robot looked at me for a second and then shook his head. I blinked.

"You _can_ understand me. You just don't speak English." I noticed. The robot nodded.

"So if no one made you, where are you from." I asked. The robot looked straight up and made a small whistle.

"You're not from Earth, are you. You're a little robot alien." I whispered. The thought was incredible. I wondered fleetingly how far away he lived. If there were others like him.

"I bet your planet is so cool, I bet you're all treated the same. No matter what you look like." I mostly muttered this to myself but the robot stamped its little foot. I looked up to see it angrily shake its head.

Then he stood straight and tall and threw a few punches at the air, then running around to the opposite side of where he was standing he threw punches in the opposite direction.

"Your species had a fight?" I asked sadly. He stretched his arms really big.

"A big fight?... a war?" I asked. He nodded. Then he pretended to die and then jumped up and stretched his arms wide again.

"A lot of your kind died huh. Our planet fights a lot to. And your species is fighting because not everyone is treated fair?" I asked. He nodded and the pointed to a symbol on his arm. It was orange or red, it was shaped like a metallic face. Then after pointing at that he began sketching something in the dirt. It looked like another face, but it was sharp, and looked mean and cold.

"That's who you're fighting. What are you called?" I asked him. He began sketching in the dirt again, but it was just odd symbols I couldn't read.

"I'm sorry, I can't read that." I explained. He frowned and then wrote something else. It was strange looking but I made out an M and a C.

"Ok, I'll just call you MC. I'm Sage." I told him. He gave a little nod and more creaks emitted.

"Hmm, I could get you all cleaned up, why don't you come over to my home, I can get those gears working properly." I suggested. He tilted his head then with a smile nodded rapidly. I beckoned for him and began walking towards the gate. I heard his little feet as he appeared beside me.

As we walked to my house I learned that he was here for something, and so were the robots with the pointed symbol.

I led him to my room and grabbed some wipes from the bathroom. Then I ran down to the garage and grabbed our old car buffer. I turned it on and a small explosion of dust shot forth. After a series of coughing I ran back up to my room where MC was admiring all my trinkets.

"Do you like them?" I asked him with a small smile. He nodded absent-mindedly.

"I used to collect anything I could get my hands on." I told him, remembering. He turned wide curious eyes and then suddenly his hand switched back and came out again with a shiny object, then it kept flipping in an out revealing more objects of all shapes and sizes.

"You collect things to huh?" I asked. He smiled and nodded as his hand replaced itself.

"Here come on over here so I can get you fixed up." He came over and sat down. I turned on the buffer and began buffing away all the rust and scratch marks, with the wipes I cleaned away the dirt and grease. I started at his head worked all the way down to his feet. When I got there, MC would not sit still, it was then that I realized he was being tickled. I laughed and then turned the buffer off. He let out some air like a sigh.

"Well there you go MC, all new and shiny again." I told him. He looked down at himself and smiled. Then he looked up at me gave me a happy nod.

Just then, I heard the front door swing open down the hall and then slam. MC looked up at me with curious, and slightly fearful eyes.

"Don't worry, it's just my mom. She always gets home late. But she'll freak if she sees you, quick hide in here." I told him ushering him into my closet. He clicked confusedly and blinked a few times as I slowly closed the closet door.

"Stay here until I come back." I whispered before clicking the door shut.

"Darling! Are you home?" My mother's shout came from the kitchen.

"I'm home mom!" I called back racing into the kitchen.

"Oh good, you wouldn't mind making dinner again tonight, I'm exhausted." She said sitting down tiredly on the couch.

"Sure mom." I answered and began heating the stove.

"How was school darling?" She asked absent-mindedly.

"It was fun, we mostly had one big social hour. Today was the last day." I reminded her.

"Oh was it, well what am I going to do with you tomorrow then?" She asked.

"I help at the boys' home, remember?" I said.

"Oh yes. Well are any of your friends going to come with you this summer to do that?" She asked.

"Oh yeah, Lisa said she could come." I lied. Lisa is my imaginary friend, I made her up so my mom doesn't have to worry about me. She has enough to worry about with dad gone off to war and her job.

She works at a high-paying security company, and she sometimes doesn't get home until eleven. Just then my mom's phone rang loudly.

"Oh, sorry dear. I've got to take this." She apologized and stood up and left. I heard her distant hello to the person on the line. I sighed as I finished up cooking the pasta. I served some for myself and left the rest steaming in the pot. When I finished eating I walked down the hall to my room. I pressed my ear against my mother's study room and heard her still talking. I decided not opening the door, I would see her tomorrow night. Instead I walked all the way down the hall to my room. I opened my door and went straight to my closet. The moment I opened the door MC darted out.

"Are you ok?" I asked him. He just gave a little shiver and threw a hostile glance at my closet.

"Sorry MC, I won't make you go back in there. But MC listen, tomorrow I have to go to a boys' home to help, so you can come if you want. But, you'll have to pretend to be a real robot. People don't like the idea of aliens too much." I explained. MC processed this for a moment and then nodded.

"Ok, why don't you sleep here in my room tonight?" I offered. He gave a little happy nod and curled up on the floor. I climbed into my bed. I glanced and MC and my mind began whirling. How on earth did this happen? I have a alien robot sleeping on my floor. He's fighting a war for crying out loud. Somehow I knew that unless I got rid of him, I would be mixed up in this deeper than I wanted to be. I sat up and then lay back down; there was no way I would be sleeping tonight. My brain needed to get used to this idea. I was still half sure I was going to wake up with another week of school left with no tiny robot on my floor. But the other half of me wanted this tiny robot to stay. When he explained that he was fighting because not everyone was treated correctly, I felt a quick connection. I could easily relate to his position, sure makes me want to fight sometimes.

Deciding that if the robot was there in the morning, I would need to be well rested. So I turned over and pulled the covers over my head. Even if my brain kept me awake by running all night, at least I would be somewhat less tired.

The last few thoughts I actually remember from that were, 'my life just got a whole lot stranger.' And boy was I right.

 **Me: Well, there it is the first chapter.**

 **Sage: wait Prowlers wasn't in it?**

 **Me: No, he's coming in the next chapter.**

 **Sage: Yeeeeessssss!**

 **MC: Makes excited clicking noises.**

 **Me: Don't get too excited, next chapter gets really wild.**

 **Sage: [In the background dancing to the song** ** _I'm so Excited]_**

 **Well, since currently my OC's are busy, I'll do the usual ending note.**

 **Nova, (that's me) does not own transformers in any way shape or form, only my OC's and the plot. Please review with anything but flames, they keep me encouraged. If you're an author you probably know how a nice review can make your day.**

 **As always, Keep writing Keep reading Nova out ; )**


	2. Chapter 2

Part of me was glad MC was there when I woke up. The other part was thinking, 'well…it's going to be an odd week.' I didn't know it at the time, but that very day was going to be extremely strange and terrifying with more than one death encounter.

Speaking of death counters, I've kept them tallied since the day I met _him._ The list is very long.

Pulling myself upright, I blinked trying to clear my eyes of the little crusty things. After my room came into view correctly I stood up and stretched each of my limbs in turn. MC was still sleeping or charging or whatever it is the robot species does. I walked down the hall to the bathroom and brushed out the tangles from my thin light brown waves. Using a washcloth I gently wiped away dirty spots on my pale skin. After that I walked back down to my room and grabbed some cloths and walked back down to the bathroom to change out of my pajamas. After I finished I slipped on a beret.

I probably forgot to mention, my mother is from France so I look French. Sharp nose, thin eyebrows, high cheekbones and my mother used to say that French people always had the most emotional eyes. When I was little, before my dad left; my mother used to tell me that eyes could be the most powerful part of you… that was a long time ago.

Shaking memories from my head I turned back towards my room. When I opened the door MC was waking up.

"Good morning MC." I greeted him. He looked up and smiled, his little blue eyes doing that little squinty thing I was starting to like. It was so adorable.

"Are you ready to go?" I asked him. He nodded as I was pulling my backpack on. Suddenly he walked over and pointed to my backpack questionably.

"It's a backpack, it can hold things." I explained. He eyed it for a second and then suddenly he sprang back into a disk. It was enticing to watch all the little gears fold neatly into place until he was a perfect disk again. I looked at it for a second and then realized what MC was suggesting. Carefully I pulled my backpack off and cautiously as I could I put the little disk inside.

"Be careful ok, MC." I told him. I got a little whistle in return. I zipped up the pack and put it on my shoulders. It was considerably heavier but still manageable. And it would raise fewer questions than having a robot with me.

I walked to the end of the hall to the door and pulled my shoes on. Mom already left so I didn't need to take care of anything for her. I left a note anyways explaining where I went and that I might not be back until late.

Then I walked out of my house and down the road. The boys' home wasn't too far away, about a 10 minute walk. I quietly talked to MC in pack. The conversation was one sided and didn't really have any meaning, but it's not every day someone will listen to anything I say. At least I'm pretty sure he's listening.

I told him about how sad my mother was when my dad left, I told him about the time my mother took me to France for a week. I told him about school and the Trio. He made a few sad sounds at that. He was listening.

After a few stories we arrived at the boys' home and I told him to be very quiet. I opened the door and was greeted by the usual sound of bells and a chorus of tiny voice shouting my name.

"Sage!"

"Your back!"

"We missed you!"

I laughed as I was tackled with tiny hands and hugs. I managed to not fall over so I would crush MC. I felt a little shifting in my pack letting me know that MC was a little nervous. I stood still to ease him.

"Hey you guys. Mason, Jack, Eli, Thomas. You guys have been good for Miss Avery I'm sure boys." I greeted them.

Speaking of their Mistress, she walked out with a grand smile on her old face.

"Sage, the youngsters have missed you so much. How was school this year?" She asked me kindly.

"Same as always Miss Avery." I answered her.

"Hope those older boys didn't give you too much trouble, would you like some cookies dear, it's their snack time."

"Thank you so much." I replied gratefully. So we all sat down and had milk and her amazing homemade cookies.

Cookies are my comfort food, I can never resist.

"The boys always play with their food and pretty soon they were launching coco chips at each other with their plastic silverware while I and Miss Avery laughed heartily at their antics.

"So Sage, do you have any cool stories to tell us?" Asked Thomas, the eldest. He was eleven. The other boys looked up eagerly. I smiled.

"Sure you guys." I agreed. Secretly I wanted like three more cookies, but the boys have been waiting to see me all school year.

I walked over to the carpet and they all sat around me.

"This tale, is about a magical-" I began.

"Wolf!" Eli, the second youngest shouted.

"Ok, a magical Wolf. And his name was BrightNight. BrightNight was very lonely, because he was the only one of his kind. All the other Wolfs made fun of him because he was different." I explained as the beginning of my story.

"He should use his magic to blast them into Obliv- Oblus- Oblisvin!" Mason said shaking his little fist. He was the youngest.

"Oblivion?" I asked him.

"Yeah that!" He said excited.

"But his magic could only fix things. He would fix trees that had fallen or deer's' that had broken their spindly limbs. He did not like to hurt things, he wouldn't even hunt. The other Wolfs teased him, saying he ought to eat the deer and not heal them. The magic in him made him too soft to hurt anything. BrightNight wanted badly to be like the other Wolfs so he set out on a quest to find a way to get rid of his magic.

"He shouldn't do that, he should just accept who he is and be proud of it." Jack said, he was the second oldest and the most thoughtful of them.

"He should, and maybe he will learn to." I told him.

I continued the story, saying how the wolf came across many challenges and learned that in each one, predatory instincts didn't help him, he was able to solve it in his own intellectual way. And when he found the random artifact that would erase his powers, he decided that really, he didn't need it. So he ventured away from his home to find a place where he belonged. Where he might be accepted. And he did find such a place, where he lived a hero, and saved many lives.

By the end of the story, most of the boys were looked ready to jump around after sitting so still. And my backpack was shifting as well.

"I liked that story." Mason said from his perch on the armrest.

"Me too." Agreed Thomas.

"Me three!" Eli shouted excited.

"It was very interesting." Jack said reflectively.

"Sage, did you bring something for us to play with again?" Mason asked innocently.

"I have a little friend, but you have to be really careful with him ok." I made them promise.

I reached inside my pack and pulled out MC, still as a disk. He slowly transformed back to a robot.

"Wow a robot!" Eli exclaimed. Mason scooted closer and Thomas and Jack scooted closer as well, looking like them really badly wanted to touch it. MC held extremely still while Thomas reached out and gently petted his head.

"It's warm." He whispered. And for the rest of the day they just admired MC, after a while MC was doing little tricks and playing with them.

They continued thinking it was robot.

"Hey Sage, where did you get this, I've never seen one." Jack asked suddenly.

"He's one of a kind, I found him in a mountain of old forgotten junk and treasure." It wasn't technically a lie.

"Wow that's so cool, I bet it was an adventure!" Thomas chimed in. And pretty soon they wanted to hear that story. So I told them. By the time I finished it was late, and I had to get home.

"Aww but Sage!" Mason complained.

"I'll be back tomorrow L'il fellas, kay." I promised.

"Kay." They said sadly. I waved as I walked out the door and heard.

"Bye Sage! Bye MC!" Before the door clicked shut. MC dropped his robot position the moment it had and stretched his limbs.

"Was that alright for you L'il guy?" I asked my robot companion. He nodded happily.

"Good, I knew they would like you." I told him. He nodded happily again but then froze suddenly.

"MC, you ok?" I asked him. He remained frozen. Then suddenly he took off down the road in the opposite direction.

"MC!" I called after him, but he didn't turn back.

Worried about my new found friend I made a quick decision and took off after him. I caught up to him at last and found he was stopped in the middle of a grassy field. I walked over to him.

"MC, what's got you so spooked?" I asked him. He looked at me and then looked up at the sky. I sat down and he copied without noticing.

"You miss your home huh? We can stay here as long as you want." I said looking up at the sky. It was so quiet and still. Every star twinkled with life, they seemed friendly. You couldn't hear a sound. You could only see the bright stars and sliver of moon, which always looked like the Cheshire cats sideways smile.

It would have been a peaceful night, if the sky hadn't exploded.

Quite literally. Blue waves of explosion suddenly shot through the sky with a loud bang, scaring me so bad I fell over and my heart gave a jolt so bad it hurt. MC whistled and hid behind me as something black began to fall from the center of the blue explosion. It was hurtling straight towards us.

"MC MOVE!" I screamed suddenly and grabbing his metal fingers I dragged him off the field and behind a tree. The object smashed into the ground so hard I felt the Earth tremble. It skidded and I heard flames and sparks being thrown everywhere. I held onto MC so tight I thought I might accidently hurt him. When the trembling stopped all I could hear was a bunch of steam hissing from the friction. We slowly crawled out from our hiding spot to see a huge black pod steaming in the middle of the carnage from the field. MC looked at it intently for a little while, and then with a little excited click he raced towards the pod.

"MC! Wait!" I called taking off after him. But too late, the pod doors opened and a huge silhouette slowly came stumbling out. Sorry did I say huge, I meant enormous. It was another robot. Same type of build as MC. Same species.

"MC, you didn't tell me you where short for your species." I scolded him taking a nervous step back.

He shrugged and then pointed at the bots arm where a face like his, resided. The bot took another shaking step forward and I was able to see his face. It looked strong and smart; it was mostly white with red crests. His blue eyes…optics? Whatever. They were super dim, which meant that he was weak.

"P-please…h-help…" He said before beginning to crash to the Earth. I grabbed MC and pulled him out of the way.

We both approached the sparking damaged bot.

"Do you know him?" I asked MC. MC nodded happily.

"We need to get him out of sight, he might fit in my garage, does he transform down into something smaller?" I asked. MC shrugged and walked over to the larger bot. He fiddled with a few things and then jumped back as his gears turned and he transformed into a alien looking car. And I thought it was cool to watch MC transform. His was smooth, and elegant, transfixing. MC and I got behind him and began pushing it down to the road.

It took about an hour but we finally managed to get him my garage. Me; greasy and sweaty and MC covered in what looked like condensation along with grease.

"Come on MC, we can worry about him in the morning, let's get some sleep." I told him. Before I shut the door I threw one last glance at the car.

Definitely in this deeper than I wanted to be…

 **Sage: b-but, Prowls didn't do** ** _anything_** **. (shocked)**

 **Me: I can't give it away all in one chapter (rolling my eyes)**

 **MC: (clicks and whistles.)**

 **Me: No MC, we can't have a bonus chapter, they'll have to wait.**

 **Prowl: Hey there not the only ones waiting, I've only got one line so far!**

 **Me: You're supposed to be too injured to do anything, back, back to the garage.**

 **Prowl: (mutters something unintelligible)**

 **Me: Sage, would you just do the ending note**

 **Sage: Alright alright, Nova does not own anything but her OC's and the plot and a huge thank to all fols and favs**

 **Shout outs-**

 **ganfirl**

 **Waterfront**

 **Some reviews would be extremely appreciated, Keep writing Keep reading Nova out ; )**


	3. Chapter 3

When someone wakes up, they usually don't want their first thoughts of the day to be 'I have a giant alien robot, injured, in my garage.' It isn't the most comforting or promising thought to have when you open your eyes.

It probably also didn't help that I believed my life to have gone drastically downhill in the time span of two days. Life changing events always suck more when they just hit you like, Bam!

I would never be able to explain this to my mother. I would also have an extremely hard time keeping it a secret from her. Mc was easy; he was small enough to hide in my room. But the bot, well…let's just say he wasn't going to fit into my closet. The reason it was so shocking , is because you could never imagine happening to yourself but you could always imagine it happening to someone else. Your just sitting there thinking, my life is too simple for anything strange and unusual to happen, most likely it will happen to someone else. But if you think about it, every has the same chance of something strange happening to them even if they don't think they do, so the shock is worse.

That's kinda what happened.

I just lay in my bed for a few minutes, the blinding explosion from last night replaying itself over and over in my head. I knew I would never forget how loud and heart stopping it had been for my entire life. And the bot's pod almost squashed us to death. It was one of those things you just don't forget.

Finally after MC had woken up, I dragged myself out of bed and did my usual morning routine. Then I walked back into my room as MC had fully booted up his systems.

"Ready to go talk to your friend?" I asked him. He whistled excitedly. I led him down the hall and I carefully opened the door to my garage. The bot must have transformed sometime during the night because he was sitting up against the wall of the garage. His optics were dully flickering and sparks jumped off him from time to time. He looked really bad. I couldn't use a buffer and wipes to fix him like I did MC.

MC walked right up and clicked something at him. The bot let out a groan. MC clicked again. The bot made noises that sounded like he was trying to say something. He tried again and finally I was able to make out something that sounded like, "Doorwings."

"Doorwings? What does that mean MC?" I asked the small bot. MC pointed behind the bot at something sticking up. They were the most damaged. MC whistled something at the bot and the bot shifted positions so we could see his back. I took a hesitant step back when he moved but nothing more. MC walked over and replaced his hand with something. He went to the wing looking things protruding from the bots back and began to weld together some of the deeper gashes, the ones that dripped rich blue liquid. Probably their fuel or blood. The wings would twitch or flinch now and again and MC would wait until they were still to continue. Once MC had mostly repaired the Doorwings the bot seemed to be able to function much better, which was good. But also worrisome.

"Can ma-anage self re-repair fro-o-om here." The bot stuttered. He must have damaged his vocal mechanism during his crash, but if can manage self repair he can probably fix that. Because I didn't want to continued calling him, the bot or just he, I gathered enough courage to ask his name.

"What should we call you?" I asked him quietly from my position in front of him.

"D-desig-designation Prowl." He muttered.

"Don't worry Prowl, you're going to be safe. I'm Sage and this is MC. MC says he knows you, so you probably know him by his actual name. You're going to stay here with us until you're completely healed. Then we can help you with whatever it is you came here for." I promised him.

Prowl's optics flicked to me and then to MC. Relief flooded them when he saw MC.

"M-mini-con?" He asked. MC nodded and clicked.

"He, d-doesn't have a n-name yet. Says h-he likes MC." Prowl translated.

"He's a re-repair bot." Prowl remembered.

"Can h-help fix." He explained.

"How long until you're going to be functional do you think?" I asked him, getting less worried at the calm tone the bot was using. He was definitely not intent on hurting us.

"DecaCycle." Was his answer before his optics powered down completely.

"What the heck is a DecaCycle?" I asked MC. He held up all his digits.

"Ten?" I guessed. He nodded.

"Ten what? Days?" I wondered aloud. MC nodded with a small shrug. Probably. I would probably have a robot in my garage for ten days.

"Is he alright? Why did his eyes shut off?" I asked. MC made a gesture like he was sleeping. I nodded.

"OK, well is there anything he's going to need when he wakes up. MC nodded and made a drinking gesture.

"Fuel." I realized. MC nodded then very carefully swiped his fingers through a little blue puddle on the ground and held it up.

"I don't have any of that stuff, where do you suggest we get it." I asked him. He put his hand to his forehead as if shielding his eyes from the sun and then squinted around my garage.

"Look? Where are we going to find alien fuel on this planet?" I pointed out. At this I got another shrug.

"Alright let's go see if we can find some lying around." I told him. He clicked happily and followed me out the door.

We found alien fuel lying around. Well not technically, it was scatter around the ship Prowl crashed. Most of it got blown up, but a few chunks and pieces survived so we gathered them up. MC scavenged the ship and found was looked like a square science vile. He fit the blue pieces inside and compressed them. He made several blue cubes and we carried them back to my house. The fuel was warm and hummed with energy that seemed full of life. I was a little disappointed to put it down when we got back.

When we did get back, Prowl was still asleep, he almost looked peaceful were it not for the injuries covering every inch of him. MC was looked sadly at him.

"He'll be ok MC. He doesn't look the type to die just from this." I tried assuring him. MC made a small sad noise and then turned towards me and motioned for us to go inside. It was now late afternoon and I still hadn't gone to the boys home. MC and I spent the rest of the day there, but both of our minds were still back in the garage. The boys thought I was tired and so they didn't ask for so many stories, instead they just had me play some quieter calmer games. Which I was grateful for.

When we got back home it was late, my mother wasn't home again and so we both went to the garage to check on Prowl again.

He was awake and looking better. His vocalizer as he told it was, was functioning again.

"You're the human girl aren't you. The one that I saw when I arrived here.

"That would be me." I answered shyly.

"A thank you is in order, for saving my life." He said in a matter of fact tone.

"I-I'm sure anyone would have done the same." I told him. He ignored this.

"My designation is Prowl. Can you tell me what planet I'm on?" He asked.

"Earth. You're on Earth. And I'm Sage" I said.

"Good, at least I ended up in the right place. Could you have the mini-con check my ship and tell me home many miles away the red dots are on the scanner, Sage?" He asked me.

"You're, you're ship? We left that where it crashed, we weren't able to move it by ourselves." I explained. He let out some air like a sigh. Something MC sometimes did.

"And I call the mini-con MC." I told him.

"MC?" He asked rather bluntly.

"Why?"

"Well, he didn't speak English and when he was writing symbols, the only two I understood was M and C.

"That would be the equivalent of calling you FH." He pointed out.

"FH?" I asked not catching on.

"Female Human." He explained. Oh.

"Oh, I didn't realize." I said my face getting warm.

"People and bots often don't." He said in an almost insulting tone. As if most beings he came across were exceedingly stupid and didn't realize or understand basic concepts.

But he really was smart. I could tell by the way he talked. With complete confidence, because he actually knows what he is talking about.

"What did the red dots on your ships scanner indicate?" I asked him.

"Where and exactly how far on a scale any Decepticon life-form is from our current position. But as seeing it was probably destroyed or scrambled by the electromagnetic waves my ship received when I passed your space monitors, I will have to render it useless as of now." He explained.

Space monitors? He must mean Satellites. And they must have messed up the controls when he passed them, that's why he crashed. But it still doesn't explain where the explosion came from.

"Well, that's just great." I said with a little sarcasm.

"I apologize, I fail to see how that in any circumstance would be a great thing." He said confused and a little snappish.

"Oh, it's um, sarcasm" I said in a duh kinda tone.

"I fail to see sarcasms purpose. Is it merely to say the opposite and mean something else to distract or confuse others?" He asked.

"Well it's complicated." I said slowly.

"Jazz warned me of these kinds of things on this planet. And the natives." He said this mostly to himself while being fully aware that I could hear him.

"Who's Jazz?" I asked with genuine curiosity.

"Classified." Came the short response and Prowl continued to fix his gears.

"How's your progress coming." I asked.

"My doorwings are going to scar." He said in a rather bitter tone.

"Are they important?" I wondered.

"Unimaginably. They are sensors, and good ones if I do say so myself. The scars will dampen or alter their ability. Which is extremely frustrating. Not that you would understand their importance being human." He said in that clipped tone.

I was trying to stay calm, but it was aggravating the way he was demeaning me. As if I didn't get demeaned enough being the color I am in the place I live and on top of that a girl. I suffer from racism and sexism, I have been demeaned enough for my whole life.

"Trust me, I know what it feels like to be frustrated." I shot back.

"Have you ever lost an arm?" He asked suddenly.

"No bu-"

"Then you do not comprehend what I am dealing with." He cut in.

"Have you ever lived with people who all have doorwings and be the only one who doesn't." I asked him in a light tone.

He considered this for a long time actually.

"What have you lived without your entire life. In other words what is the point you are trying to make."

"Dang, this guy is good, from that one question he deduced that there was something I didn't have here that everyone else had and I was trying to make a point with it.

"Dark skin. I've never had it, everyone else here does have it. I understand your frustration of not having something that you want very badly. And there is a good reason for you to want your doorwings and me to want to have skin like everyone else. So I do somewhat comprehend what you are dealing with. If that's any condolence to you." I said in my usual calm tone. I could tell that Prowl wasn't having his day. It was ridiculous but I wanted him to feel better.

"Something tells me you aren't like most off the humans Jazz describes that live on this planet." He said with a new tone, a thoughtful one.

"Something tells me you're not like most of the robots that come from your planet." I answered. He gave a small smirk, which looked naturally etched into his faceplates, it looked right on him. Like that was the look that usual resided on him. It wasn't a mean smirk, it was more a friendly one. I looked like it was saying, 'oh you have no idea.'

And I didn't, I really truly didn't.

 **Me: Phew, chapter three is over. Prowl is very hard to write.**

 **Prowl: I'm offended.**

 **Me: Well like Sage said, no ones like you. You're one of a kind.**

 **Prowl: I'm going to take that as a compliment.**

 **Sage: Since when do you accept compliments?**

 **Prowl: Since I met you**

 **MC: Whistles in an annoyed sort of way.**

 **Me: MC, I would let you do the ending note but no one understands you. Speaking of which, Sage please wrap this up.**

 **Sage: Ok, Nova does not own transformers blah blah blah copywrite stuff, no suing, an-**

 **Me: SAGE!**

 **Sage: Fine! Nova does not own transformers only her plot and oc's and a major thanks to favs and fols and our first review! Please they are so encouraging**

 **Shout outs!**

 **Shadow3692**

 **With that, Keep writing Keep reading Nova out ; )**


	4. Chapter 4

NOTE: THIS IS FROM PROWLS POINT OF VIEW

We didn't get along. That much was clear. But we both understood each other in a strange sort of way. The human was a little dreamy. She never quite seemed to be always in the present. It would bother me sometimes when she didn't understand things I said because she was partly paying attention and partly wandering around inside her own head. It did remind me of a certain saboteur though.

The mini-con was still attached to the rather undistinguished nickname. It bothered me that he wasn't given a name set with meaning and importance but he was a stubborn one. So I let that go. When the two of them came in on the fourth day I had important news.

"Hi Prowl. Doing better today?" Sage asked in that calm tone. Sometimes it sounded a little mocking because it sounded like she thought nothing was wrong. She didn't really understand the gravity of my situation.

"I am working on getting my sensors running better." I answered quickly before checking back in to all of my stats and vitals.

:Vibrations: 67% uh, mediocre

:sounds: 88% will have to do

:temperature: 27% that needs to get fixed

:scanner: 65% definitely a problem

The list of functions in my doorwings never reached above 90% so my wings were nearly bad enough to be considered crippled.

"However, I have repaired all damage to my struts and peds, I may be able to walk around at this point." I let her know.

She bit her lip at this.

"Yeah…I don't where I'm going to put you. No one can see you." Sage pointed out.

"I will need something Earth based to scan, I will be able to use it as a disguise." I explained.

"How?" She asked in that curious aggravating tone. She had to ask questions about _everything_.

"I can transform into whatever I scan." I said a little exasperated.

"Oh ok, what would you like then?" She asked with a little smile. It made me uncomfortable.

"An Enforcing car would be complimentary. If that isn't too hard?" I asked her.

"Police motorcycle, car, truck. Whatever you can think of." She answered with that same smile.

"Why? What do you have in mind?" I asked her suspiciously.

"Just trust me. And pick whatever you want." She answered unconvincingly. I just narrowed my optics a little. Not my favorite topic, trusting. But I let it go and searched through there primitive database for something. I finally found one that looked decent. That was one thing Jazz let me know, the automobiles here were creative. After seeing some pictures, I believed him.

I brought up the picture holographically.

"Looks like a cross between a Camaro and a Lamborghini." She said studying it.

"I have no idea what that means." I answered her. She ignored this.

"Come on, we'll head to the dealership. They might have what you're looking for." She said opening the garage door. I transformed into the Enforcer car I scanned on Cybertron. I would miss this alt mode. I opened the door for Sage and MC to get in.

"Are, you sure?" She asked hesitating.

"Absolutely not, but get in anyways. We have no other way to get there." I pointed out. She carefully climbed in and MC scrambled in as well. We left her garage sticking to back roads. Sage gave me directions to wherever it is we're going.

When we finally got there, I had organic creatures splattered over my front and organic material stuck in the crevices in my treads. I transformed quietly after they got out and shook myself off. I would need to wash myself later.

"So Prowl, why exactly _are_ you here, is it to find this Jazz bot?" Sage asked me from her position on the ground.

"Yes, we were separated on the Ark's escape from Cybertron. Most Autobots got message from our leader Optimus Prime to come here, I also got word from Jazz that he had arrived here. So I piloted my escape pod towards Earth and had it put me into stasis. I woke up when I was approaching the Atmosphere but the Space Monitors interrupted the controls and I crashed.

"Well, once you get your vehicle mode and finish all your repairs, then I guess you'll be on your way to go find them." She realized. Maybe it was just me but at the thought she sounded a little disappointed.

"What about you MC, will you go with him?" Sage asked a little hopeful. MC looked between us and shrugged.

"You'll make that decision when it comes huh." She asked rhetorically. MC nodded in affirmation. I moved away so I could look at all the vehicles there were because I was finding the conversation rather pointless.

After a few minutes of looking I found a decent vehicle that looked pretty close to the picture I found and scanned it. Then I walked back over and transformed.

"Nice." Sage said as I opened my doors for them to get in.

As we drove back I realized my ship might still be giving off a signal.

"Sage, can we go to my ship, I want to check over a few things." I told her.

"Sure thing." She agreed. She pointed me in the right direction and so we drove to the grassy field I crashed on.

They climbed back out and I transformed. There was a quick stall and stumbled when I finished transforming into my bipedal mode.

"Prowl, you ok?" Sage asked reaching out her hands as if waiting to catch me if I fell. I resisted scoffing.

"I'm fine." I snapped, not wanting pity from a human. That was something that would not help, if something didn't help they why bother with it.

"Sorry." She muttered as if realizing her mistake.

"You're human, it's understandable." I let her know. But for some reason she looked rather affronted at that. Earth was confusing. I began making my way over to my ship when I suddenly heard voices. I took a step back and then quickly and quietly transformed. Sage ran up to me.

"Prowl, what is it?" She asked.

"Humans, by the ship. I believe three of them, all mech." I whispered.

"Mech?" She asked confused.

"Sorry, I believe the term here is male." I cleared up. She groaned and then walked towards the ship.

"Sage?" I whispered, wondering why the fact that there were three males made her upset. But she did not answer.

"Sage?" I whispered once more. But at this point she couldn't hear me. Why must she be so stubborn, why in all of Earth and Cybertron would any being be so completely stubborn. I just watched as she approached as three sharply dressed boys came around the backside of my ship. I watched as they stopped at the sight of Sage and then the middle once smiled. He said something and Sage crossed her arms. The biggest suddenly pointed to a mark on his head and sneered something at her. Sage just shrugged and then pointed at me after saying something else. The boys looked a little worried after that.

What had she told them? Had she revealed that I was alien?

The boys said something else so Sage began to turn back towards me and then all freaked out and stopped her. She turned back around hiding what looked like a smile. But suddenly that fell and the middle kid slugged her in the stomach. She crumpled and I blared my headlights. They looked up suddenly in shock. The middle kicked her a few times as the other two started to back up. The middle one kicked her again and she was turned over to face me. Another harsh kick and she mouthed 'help.'

So I transformed.

 **Me: I'm sorry, that was the worst cliff ever.**

 **Prowl: I would never do something that stupid.**

 **Me: Shush, it makes the story good.**

 **Me: Well, since Sage and MC and sorta just staring at the screen in shock, I'll end it. I do not own transformers only my ocs and the plot.**

 **Shout outs!**

 **kimmay94**

 **Well, from now on, if you review I will check out any stories you have written and review, also you get a shout out which is a thank you. PLZ reviews are so encouraging.**

 **Keep writing Keep reading Nova out ; )**


	5. Chapter 5

NOTE: THIS IS BACK TO SAGES POINT OF VIEW

Sharp pain stretched across my side like a wildfire. Another jab in my side pushed me over. I saw Prowls alt mode. In pain and in fear I whispered a quick help. I didn't know what he could do though, not without giving away his cover.

But then, without warning, he transformed.

 _No Prowl._ I thought as Antonio gave a yelp of fear. Liam stumbled back and Marcus suddenly stopped kicking me. They all saw him.

"W-what are you?!" Antonio yelled, his voice trembling with fear. Prowl regarded him with those icy optics. Then he answered.

"I'm not someone that will let you off easy when you hurt someone else." He growled. Liam swallowed and Marcus crept away from me not wanting to be pinned as the one to hurt me. Prowl took a step forward and the three boys all began to run.

"Tell anyone about me, and I will hunt you down!" He threatened after them.

But threatening these boys, never worked for long. Prowl's secret was out. Inside I was smiling after watching them run like cowards though. I slowly picked my bruised body off the ground. Prowl knelt down beside me.

"Are you badly injured?" He asked me, sounding a little worried.

"I'm fine. It'll all heal." I assured him with a tight smile. MC raced forward and carefully pulled me to my feet. He was clicking and whirring the whole time in a ranting fretful manner.

"Its fine MC, I'll be fine." I said with a small laugh at his antics. But he stayed right next to me like a little body guard and eyed the nearby trees suspiciously.

"Who were those creeps?" Prowl asked me, his tone sounding bitter. But it was bitter at them, not at me. He wasn't very good at getting his emotions across.

"That was Antonio Markus and Liam, better known as The Trio. They're the ones who enjoy bothering me about my skin." I explained.

"They have a horrible way of going about it." Prowl said. I sighed in frustration. Prowl looked at me questioningly.

"They shouldn't 'go about it' at all" I snapped a little frustration.

"My apologies, that isn't the message I was trying to come across-" He began.

"I know what you meant, Prowl." I snapped, cutting him off.

"Oh, and just what did you think I meant?" He challenged.

"You didn't think twice about the fact that _any_ sort of 'bothering' is wrong, just the fact they hurt me was wrong. If they had just called me names, you would say to 'get over it' or 'don't let it bother you.'"

"Well, I won't argue that words should never affect one's mind as in most cases they won't actually hurt. And if you aren't actually hurt, there isn't a real problem." He reasoned. I sighed in defeat.

"Sometimes Prowl, it hurts more emotionally that physically. Maybe you've never experienced it. But emotionally can be so much worse." I muttered. He just didn't understand. It was like he didn't have emotions. But that was clearly a lie because he was angry at The Trio and worried for me a second ago. It was almost like he was trying to hide his emotions. What an awful thing to do. Though it might hurt less…

Yes, that must be why. Like I just said, emotions can hurt more than physically being hurt. Prowl didn't want that, he shut out his emotions. But the question is, _why_?

In a few minutes, I made it my mission to find out.

Before I had time to brainstorm any reasons why, sirens sounded in the distance.

"We need to get out of here." Prowl said, and he transformed. MC and I ran over and climbed in. Prowl backed out and speed off.

"What about your ship?" I asked him, worried.

"With luck, the Enforcers of this planet will think The Trio exaggerated when they said they saw me, once they find the pod. It will probably also seem more like The Trio is lying because they will leave significant details out about you and the fact that they hurt you. Their story will have questionable parts and the enforcers will probably come to the conclusion that I don't exist." Prowl explained quickly.

"How do you analyze these kinds of things?" I asked amazed at the logic he put into his prediction.

"I'm a tactician. It's my job to think these things through quickly. My battle computer is one of the best built and before I even received I was a logic based intelligent Cybertronian. It was one of the reasons they gave me the computer and a role as TAC officer along with Optimus Prime's third in command." Prowl explained logically. What he said always made perfect sense and it was always for more than one valid reason. But what interested me more was that he was third in command, or TIC.

"Who's second in command?" I asked hesitantly, expecting the answer to be something like 'classified.'

"Jazz." He answered shortly. I smiled, least we're getting somewhere. I thought about commands for a while longer when something crossed my mind.

"You know Prowls, if you put both your roles together you're a TIC TAC." I said trying and failing to hide my smile.

"It's Prowl. And I'm not sure I follow…whatever it is you're trying to say when you call me a TIC TAC."  
He replied seriously.

"It's a teeny tiny earth candy." I explained. Prowl was silent.

"Sorry." I said awkwardly.

"You're going to start calling me that…aren't you." He said, but his tone was lightly amused.

"Unless you can logic me into a way not to." I shot back playfully.

"I can't logic Jazz out of the nickname he gives me; I doubt I can do it with you." He answered.

"Wait. What does Jazz call you?" I asked with a smirk.

"Forget I talked."

"Sorry Tic-tac, it's kinda hard." I pressed. I earned myself another long silence.

"Prowler." He said after a long while.

"Love it." I said instantly. He just sighed and then went quiet.

We drove for a while longer until I no longer recognized my surroundings.

"Where are you taking us?" I asked him confused.

"Away from this town. They'll search for me for a while." He explained.

"No! I can't just disappear without telling my mother where I'm going! And all I have is my backpack! I need food and water and clothes and belongings!" I exclaimed.

"We can get more on the way. Do you have a communication device?" He asked.

"Yeah, but I'm not texting my mom and telling her we had to leave because my alien friend decided he didn't want to stick around." I snapped. Somehow, Prowl didn't snap back.

"Tell your parental guardian that you are going to see a friend in the hospital and you'll be out of communication range." Prowl instructed me. I sighed.

"Alright, sorry I snapped. I'll text her." I said. I apologized because without Prowl I would have been found some other time by the Trio and I would have taken a beating. I didn't _want_ to be mad at him.

"By the way, I totally forgot to say thanks. For the save with the Trio." I said quietly.

"I'm sure anyone would have done the same." He answered, echoing what I said when he thanked me.

We drove on in silence. MC had fallen into recharge and I wasn't far behind. Night had fallen and I was exhausted. My side was aching from all the kicks earlier and my mind hadn't gotten a very good rest since the day the sky blew up. The warm sound of Prowl's engine was calming. I briefly wondered what else life could possibly decide to hurl in my direction when Prowl slammed on the brakes. I flew forward a smacked my head on the dashboard. Both Prowl and I groaned. The jolt had woken up MC and he clicked worriedly. Prowl didn't answer MC nor did he translate what he said. His doors flew open and MC caught me as we flew out and Prowl transformed. We looked up.

"What gives Prowl!" I said indignantly. But he didn't even pay attention. He was facing a dark green car ahead of us. The car also began to shift and transform until it became a muscular black and green robot.

"Hey Prowler, long time no see." The bot said with a smirk. The mean kind of smirk.

"It's Prowl. And I wish it had been longer. Lockdown."

"Tough words for a cadet." The green bot, Lockdown, said.

"I assure you Lockdown, I'm no cadet anymore." Prowl growled.

"Shame. The young'uns always scream louder." Lockdown laughed and then his face shifted into a gun.

Let me make this clear. His _face_ turned into a _gun._

I could feel the heat of the first blast like standing uncomfortably close to a fire. Prowl rolled out of the way just in time. The blasts continued and a felt tiny metal fingers close around my wrist. MC pulled me away from the ensuing death fight.

"MC! Prowl's still healing, he could get hurt. And it sounds like he and this Lockdown person have a history." I told MC trying to pull out of his literal steel grip. The only reaction I got was a shiver at the name Lockdown. MC pulled me behind a little clump of boulders off the road and we waited while listening to the shouts and shots of the battle.

I listened hard for any clues that Prowl might be in danger. I watched through the gaps between branches but all I could see were the occasional flying sparks and glint of armor.

"Sage!" Prowl suddenly screamed.

"Prowl?!" I called back. No answer.

"Come on MC." I said jumping up and taking off through the woods back towards the road. I heard MC's little ped steps behind me. When we got to the road we saw Prowl on his back sparking. His doorwings looked re-injured and he was leaking Energon in several places.

Suddenly a black servo grabbed me up and held me tightly.

"Well, looky here, I caught a pet. Tell me tiny, do you scream loud, cuz I need to feel like I terrify people. Only way to make sure I get the job done correctly." He told me with a nasty smile.

"I would be afraid, but I'm too focused on your ugliness to think about things as petty as terror." I snapped.

"Fiery, I love it. Makes it more fun to break you, it's a better challenge." Lockdown laughed. I saw Prowl begin to get up out of the corner of my eye so I kept talking.

"Other than the way you look Lockdown, what exactly is supposed to be terrifying about you?" I asked skeptically.

His hand turned into a chainsaw.

"Oh. Never mind." I whispered in a small voice. He chuckled.

Prowl was up completely by now and sneaking up behind the con ready to backhand him on the head.

"Say Lockdown." I said trying to get his attention and get the fear out of my voice.

"What squishy?" He snarled started to get fed up with my attempted courage, he was getting less amused.

"You always use a chainsaw to scare you enemies, sure it's sharp, but it's nothing special. I've seen far better weapons." I challenged. A glint lit up his blood colored optics.

"Oh but this saw, I took out of somebot. Cut it outta their arm. Killed 498 things with it, organic and Cybertronian." He growled. I swallowed.

"Well, has it ever distracted you long enough to get caught by an enforcer of the law?" I asked. He looked confused for a second and just as realization hit, and he turned around, Prowl smacked him. It was beautiful. Lockdown went flying and so did I. Prowl lunged forward and caught me, landing sideways on one of his doorwings.

Lockdown groaned in the distance but I heard him get electrified and I looked over the edge of Prowl's servo to see MC zapping him in what looked like painful places. Suddenly I was lifted up to Prowl's faceplates. He was lying sideways so I tilted my head.

"Are you ok?" He asked.

"Me, yeah. What about _you?_ " I asked him exasperated.

"I'm going to hurt a lot in the morning." He answered while putting me down. He slowly stood up and brushed some sparks off him armor.

"By the way, that's twice I've saved you." He pointed out.

"I kept Lockdown distracted." I protested.

"Yeah, you did. It was funny to listen to. Nobody talks to Lockdown like that." He mused.

"There's a first time for everything." I said. He stared for a second then started laughing quietly.

"You continue to astound me Sage." He said with a shake of his helm.

"What are we going to do with creepy?" I asked him.

"MC can transform him and put him into a locked down stasis, then I guess I'll tow him behind me until we get, well wherever we're headed." Prowl suggested.

"You know Prowl, for a Tic-tac, you're pretty dang smart." I joked. He rolled his optics.

"How do you know Lockdown?" I asked suddenly.

"Oh…that's a long story." He answered.

"Got anything better to do?" I asked.

"That story isn't PG."

 **Me: Well Primus, I wrote this chapter in the middle of the night. Sorry if it was complete scrap**

 **I'm just going to wrap this up since I don't feel like typing out an entire little end note.**

 **Enormous thanks to kimmay94 for your review. It really meant a lot. It's good to know there are some people out there who actually are reading this and enjoying this. It makes me want to keep writing. So with that,**

 **Keep writing keep reading Nova out ; )**


	6. Chapter 6

I couldn't sleep as we continued driving away from my town. Mostly because some pieces were dangling off Lockdown and were dragging on the road next to him making the most irritating noise behind us. MC had managed to transform him into his green sports car alt mode. Prowl said he would have a grappling hook in his subspace and MC managed to pull that out also. After we got him hooked up, we hit the road again. It was late, nearly one in the morning.

But questions and the noise of metal on cement kept me awake. I wondered mostly how Prowl knew Lockdown, and if it had anything to do with why Prowl showed so little emotion. What exactly could Lockdown have done to make Prowl hate him so much?

But mostly, I was thinking that it wasn't just Jazz that called Prowl here, it could just as easily be the fact that Prowl was pushed here by Lockdown.

One of two things; Prowl is lying, or Lockdown was wandering around Earth looking to pick a fight.

"Hey Prowl, is Lockdown one of those Decepticons' you were telling me about?" I asked in a whisper, so as to not wake up MC.

"No, Lockdown is a Bounty Hunter. But Decepticons' pay better." He answered in a whisper back. I thought about this for a second, if Lockdown was a Bounty, then who had a price on their head here on Earth that Lockdown wanted?

"Who's he hunting?" I asked Prowl in a pressuring voice. He was silent for a long time. It drew on to become an uncomfortable silence.

"One can never be certain." He replied. _Well that cleared things up._ I thought exasperated.

"It's you, it must be. Why else would you run into him on some old highway? On the same planet. Also, it's a large planet and you two just happened to be in the exact same place?" I asked rhetorically.

"It would stand to reason that I could be his Bounty, but I'm not sure what I've done to earn a price on my head." Prowl pointed out. I stopped train of thought before I said something else. He did have a good point, but then again. . . it only made me more suspicions as to what exactly Prowl was doing before he came here, and what it had to do with Lockdown.

I could tell Prowl didn't really want to tell me what happened. I needed to drop the subject, and then subtly ask questions at random spaced out times. If he caught on what I was trying to figure out, I knew he wouldn't too happy, and probably would be even more secretive about it than before.

We continued driving in silence so I did my best to fall asleep. I mostly just drifted off into my mind, but I couldn't actually fall asleep. The car was delved into complete silence, save for the metal scraping outside and MC's vents falling and rising and I could feel the hum of his sleeping engine as waves of warmth peeled of his little metal body from his curled up position on my lap.

After another hour or so, the scraping noise had fallen to the background and my eyes were beginning to droop, in another minute or so, they would refuse to stay open. And in slow moments I drifted off to sleep.

I should have known that sleeping would bring nightmares, given what had happened to me in the past few days.

 _I opened my eyes. I was walking home from school again. I recognized the path, and I continued down it. But for some reason the path turned into metal and suddenly there were enormous buildings around me. But everything was on fire and explosions rattled the ground. There were Cybertronians' everywhere firing missiles and lasers and rockets. I started running and then MC was there pulling me away to a dark tunnel away from the mess. But then MC was gone. I looked around frantically but he had vanished. I continued down the tunnel only to see the dark form of some bot. He turned towards me and gave a maniacal smile. The bot was Lockdown, he grabbed me up and held his saw at me. He carried me out of the tunnel, but it wasn't Cybertron anymore, now we were back on Earth. Prowl was facing us. He wasn't glaring at Lockdown, he was glaring at me._

 _"You betrayed me for the Bounty?" He spat. It was like I couldn't control myself as I answered._

 _"Yes Prowl, we're here to collect your price, lucky I knew where to find you. I sure helped out Lockdown here." I smirked. A mean smirk. It looked horrible on me. I tried to tell Prowl that I would never do that when police cars showed up. Markus and Liam and Antonio got out. The police put handcuffs on Prowl and I, Lockdown had just disappeared like MC had earlier. But then MC was there beside me again. The officers electrified him and put him in a cage. He whined and twitched. I was shoved into a police car. But it wasn't a random Police car, it was Prowl._

My eyes were open and I was staring at Prowl's interior. I was breathing hard. My face heated up as tears began to push forth. A single glittering drop of water slipped down my face, it made a trail through all the dirt and grease on my face. Prowl of course couldn't see this, so I remained silent as I reached up and wiped it. I turned to look out the window and that's when I realized we weren't moving. Prowl must have pulled over to recharge. Poor bot, driving all night. I kept looking out the window at the rising sun. As the gold rays came over the green hills I smiled. Sometimes I do have to remember how amazing this planet is. I tapped Prowl's dash to wake him up.

"Sage?" He asked as his lights came on.

I opened the door and carried out MC. Prowl transformed and stretched. I walked to the edge and sat down. Prowl came over and sat down next to me, hardly making a noise. He was extremely gentle for his size upon this world.

"That is amazing." He said smiling at the sun as it lit up the sky.

"It really is." I said happily as the sun's warm rays began to creep up my face. Prowl was shining next to me as the sun reflected off him.

We sat in silence but there was no need to talk. The sun was so stunning before us that words seemed lost. The planet itself spoke for us as its rich green hills and blue sky faded into their proper color. It looked like an image from as story. The rivers sparkled and the hills were that perfect green one could never seem to get correct. The sky was dappled gold as the darkness faded away.

I always liked mornings, the sun seemed to clean the world of anything dark and destructed. My nightmare was completely forgotten at the first sight of sunlight. Suddenly I heard MC wake up behind me. He whistled at the sight of the sunrise and then climbed up onto Prowl's shoulders to get a good view. Prowl smiled at his antics then bent over and lifted me onto his other shoulder. I could see even more from up here. I smiled at Prowl and I think we both heard the unspoken message.

'We just might be ok.'

Prowl was going slower when we got back on the road, he explained that his Energon levels were low and he didn't want to use one of the few cubes we had just yet, so instead we went slower. He was also still self repairing, and didn't want to strain himself.

A couple hundred miles back he picked up Jazz's signal coming from Diego Garcia.

"That's an Island." I pointed out.

"We will find a way to stowaway on a ship or something." Prowl suggested.

"What about Lockdown?" I asked wondering what we were going to do with the green sports car when he woke up.

"We can find a place on the ship for him as well." Prowl said.

"What if he wakes up on the ship? That will be a real problem." I replied. MC whistled something.

"You will?" Prowl asked MC. MC nodded in affirmation.

"What did he say?" I asked, feeling in the dark.

"He's says he can stay with Lockdown and make sure he stays in stasis." Prowl explained.

"That's really risky MC, are you sure?" I asked him worried.

He nodded again with a brave little look on his face.

"Well, were about five hours away from the nearest docking point, would you guys like to stop to buy anything necessary?" Prowl asked.

"Sure, but I don't have any money." I explained. This problem occurred to me just now and I was worried, if I couldn't get anything I might die of starvation.

"I think I have a solution." Prowl said, not letting on any more. I just smiled, wondering what he had in mind and was completely relieved.

He drove in to a parking lot to a mall, with plenty of stores around. Then he went silent and waited.

"Prowl, what are we waiting for?" I asked in a quiet voice.

"You'll see." He answered, not that that cleared anything up. I waited in the quiet, the only interesting thing was some random guy walking past.

But to my surprise, this was what Prowl was waiting for. He drove forward a little so I could see him.

"Sage, what do you think of that human?" He whispered.

"Umm…well he only looks a little older than me. Umm.." I struggled as I studied him closer.

"He might be from California, given his hair. See how it's been bleached a little by the sun at the tips. He looks pretty nice, and strong. Some guys look weak and you can tell. But not him, that's a good sign." I said after studying him for a few minutes.

"So by the look of him, can you tell if he breaks laws or not?" I asked.

"No, I can't do that. But he doesn't look the type. He doesn't look shady at all." I assured Prowl.

"But why exactly do you want to know all this?" I asked suddenly.

"Watch." Prowl answered, again failing to clear up my confusion. A green light came out from the front and ran over the guy several times.

"Why'd you scan him?" I whispered. Prowl didn't answer. I sighed a little in frustration.

"How does this look?" Prowl asked, but his voice startled me by sounding from right next to me. I jumped and turned. I almost screamed but the human from outside put his hand over my mouth. When he pulled away I opted not to scream, but I was breathing rapidly.

"Prowl?" I whispered stunned.

"The one and only." His voice said from the guy across from me. He gave a really familiar smirk at my expression. The only way I could tell it was him, was the same voice, and his eyes. They were still a hard icy blue, a color that could only belong to one bot or person in the universe. I also noticed he wore the Autobot insignia on the leather jacket he was wearing. I calmed down once I knew it was him.

"Wait, you can just SCAN ANYONE!" I yelled excited. The human Prowl covered his ears with his hands. He gave a pointed look.

"Sorry." I said a lot more quietly.

"Indoor voices Sage, please." He said in a strained voice that signified that he was in pain from the loudness of my shout. No doubt he was still getting used to human traits.

"How is it that you humans can be so tiny yet so loud?" He asked in disbelief.

"Sorry. But if you can scan anyone, why not scan some like, super hot actor or something?" I asked, knowing who I would scan if I could look like anyone.

"Because that might compromise the whole disguise thing, if I was doppelganger to someone famous, I would be mobbed." Prowl explained. The guy had a reason for everything.

"One question." He said suddenly, getting my attention.

"Shoot." I replied.

"How is it that you knew this was sun bleach?" He asked pointing to the white blonde tips of his hair.

"See how it's almost white and then beneath it it's like a rich brown." I explained pointing to the colors.

"Yes." He answered.

"Well, the white blonde can't be done by normal bleach, only the UV rays of our sun." I explained. Prowl nodded with a smile.

"That's a very good observation." He complimented.

"Thanks." I said, my face getting a little warm. He smiled and a second later he held up the low hanging bang.

"I'm going to turn this red." He said.

"Why? Because of the red crests on your bot form?" I asked.

"Precisely." He answered. Then he opened his door and climbed out.

I climbed out on my side. I poked my head back in and told MC we'd be right back. He nodded and then curled up to sleep again. I smiled at his cuddled up form. I felt a little bad, I hadn't been giving a lot of attention because Prowl could actually talk to me. But differences should be no reasons not to talk to someone, I know that. I would talk to him when we got back. I shut Prowl's door. Prowl was waiting for me by the edge of the parking lot so I jogged over.

"You're a girl who got kidnapped; I'm the police officer that rescued you. I'll get you anything you need and bill it to the local police station." Prowl told me. I raised an eyebrow in confusion.

"No… I'm a girl who met a robot alien and got dragged into a war, got attacked by a bounty hunter, and am helping my alien friend find his comrades." I corrected him.

"It's a cover, so we can get you what you need without cash." Prowl explained. I nodded slowly and then a smile spread over my face.

"Thank you so much officer, I was so terrified." I said in a tiny little acting voice. He smiled.

"It was my honor." He replied heroically.

"You're a policeman not a samurai." I teased. He rolled his blue eyes and we walked to the store.

It was a _FredMyers_ so it had clothes and food. Prowl went to go pick out clothes while I picked out food. When we met back up he was holding kakis and a sweater. I stared for about a whole minute before facepalming and going to look for myself. I picked out a sports top and some jeans in case we met another Bounty Hunter or Decepticon, I didn't want to trip because I was wearing a stupid mini skirt or skinny jeans.

I walked back over to Prowl and we went to find a checkout line. The person at the register raised an eyebrow but said nothing to our story. We made it out of the store and walked back to Prowl's alt. MC was waiting for us as clicked happily when we climbed in. Prowl's holoform suddenly disappeared with a little fizzle of blue, the color of Energon.

"I swear, I am never going to get used to that." I said staring at the spot where Prowl just disappeared.

"I'm never going to get used to being human." Prowl replied. His engine started up and we were back on the road.

I sighed quietly, driving was beginning to get really old.

"Prowl?" I asked after a few minutes of driving.

"Yes Sage." He replied.

"How far away are we from the boat docks." I asked.

"137 miles." He answered exactly. I sighed again. It takes about 2 minutes to drive a mile, and 137 multiplied by 2 was a long time, for me to kill time.

It was oddly quiet as we we're driving though. It began to spark my memory with something, I couldn't quite place it. I thought a little harder, a scraping noise suddenly entered my memory. Yes the sound of Lockdown scraping against the highway.

But… it wasn't there.

"Prowl!" I screamed, causing him to screech to a halt.

"What?! Are you hurt?!" He asked in a worried voice.

"Lockdown! We left him in the parking lot!"

 **Me: I am so sorry, that was a very bad cliffhanger.**

 **Sage: We would never do something that stupid. Not even me!**

 **Prowl: Well, you might…**

 **Me: on with the end.**

 **Shout outs!**

 **WolfieLE**

 **Bluefeather4299**

 **MJCM1**

 **Archangel305**

 **MechanicalCaptain**

 **Also a huge thx to everyone who everyone who review. If you like the story, review, it there is something in the story you want to have happen, review, ideas constructive criticism or something random that you need to say, review it! They mean that people like my work, and that's good to know.**

 **Keep writing keep reading Nova out ; )**


	7. Chapter 7

NOTE: THIS IS FROM MC'S POV

Mostly it was my fault for letting them forget Lockdown. I'll never earn a mini-con title if I keep making mistakes like this. The MLG aka Mini-con Leadership Group had assigned me to Prowl and I already allowed us to get separated once and then Prowl crashed, luckily on the same planet; leading us to get reunited.

Sage told me it wasn't my fault that we forgot Lockdown, but I kept thinking I could have done better. I was sitting in the back feeling sad while Prowl raced through the highways with the sirens on.

Secretly, the sirens were really fun and I was enjoying watching cars swerve out of the way. But I stayed in the back because I still felt guilty about my mistake.

By the time we got back to the parking lot, it was almost empty because the stores were closing. We scanned the area for a green sports car. I spotted one turning the corner and I pointed it out to Prowl.

: _There twelve o clock turning the corner:_ I said to him in Cyber Standard. Prowl turned and took off after Lockdown. As we neared Prowl's doors' opened and me and Sage tumbled out while Prowl transformed. I helped Sage up and dragged her back around the corner.

"MC! We can't just run, we have to help him face Lockdown." Sage protested.

: _Way too dangerous. Especially for you.:_ I scolded, even though she couldn't understand.

"I don't know what you said, but I sounded like a scolding tone." She mused, I just dragged her forwards.

"But MC, I'm serious, we're helping him." She said pulling away from my grip. I turned around and sighed. Sage looked at me and then turned around and ran back towards the fight. I followed her.

"If I couldn't keep her away, I would still stay with her. Prowl was already in a deadlock with the Bounty.

"You got lucky last time. You had your little pet to distract me. Not this time." I heard Lockdown growl. Prowl, the bot he was, remained silent. He told me before that talking during a fight was a weakness and a distraction.

"So sure about that creepo!" Sage suddenly yelled from the ground.

Ok, two things. One; Sage, you need to work on your insults Two; the stupid things you do are going to get you killed one day. Lockdown growled at her and made to stomp on her with his large ped. I ran forward and tackled Sage out of the way.

"Ow…" She groaned. I stood up and dragged her away from another one of Lockdown's crushing steps.

"Thank's MC. How do _you_ suggest we help?" She asked breathing hard. I did have an idea, but I couldn't communicate her, curse language. I settled for the old 'point and guess' method. I pointed at Lockdown then to her then to the recycle bin in the alley with the tire next to it and then to me. She stared for a while in confusion and then,

"I'll distract Lockdown and you do your thing." She told me. I nodded and ran to the alley. I heard Sage yell some other cringy insult followed Prowl's warning to stay back. I ran up to the tire and pulled out some rope from my collection. Quickly I wrapped the rope around the tire. I dragged the contraption out of the alley. I looked up to see that Prowl had backed off Lockdown and Sage…

Wait, where was Sage? I heard her yell something at Lockdown. Her voice sounded from… up? I looked around and was scared to find that Lockdown held her in his black clawed servo. He ran a finger across her cheek and she seethed in pain. A thin line of red appeared, blood. The human equivalent to Energon. I could feel my servo's trembling from anger but I stayed quiet. Lockdown laughed bitterly and said something else to Prowl, who had backed off because he didn't want Sage to get hurt. I tuned in to what he was saying.

"Funny, seems like not too long ago we were in the same position except you had the element of surprise with Prowl here. Too bad you don't have that now." Lockdown drawled. _I have the element of surprise_. I thought as I began to get a good swing on the tire. I swung it around and around, building up enough momentum. One more should do it.

I swung, the tire sailed through the air and came up to smack Lockdown in the head. But just before it did something stopped it. It was Lockdown's servo. He _caught_ the tire.

"Mini- when I said you don't have the element of surprise, I meant it." He said addressing me. He had seen me the whole time. He turned around and swung his ped at me. It struck me hard across the chassis and pain flared up, immediately several warning signs popped up in my HUB. I was flying through the air, and then just as fast I was crashing into hard ground. Sparks flew everywhere, stinging my armor where they touched. I tried to get up but my limbs refused to move. I groaned and transformed back into a disk, least no one would see me. And my automatic repair systems would work faster.

I was only laying there for a few minutes when some human stopped and bent over me.

"I know you." A little boy's voice said as little fingers picked me up. I relaxed. The universe was feeling nice today. I thought this after recognizing the voice as Jack. One of the boys from the place Sage volunteered at. I scanned my surroundings just to make sure.

Yup, same raven haired nine year old. He was young enough that he would forget about me when he got older. He carried me over to somewhere else where the old woman from the place was sitting with some of the other boys.

"Look Miss Avery, what I found at the park." Jack said. The other boys exclaimed excited things at random, mostly yelling MC in excitement.

"That's very special looking Jack, but it's getting late, we ought to be heading back. It's a long drive back home from this park. But did all you boys have fun?" I heard her ask. There was a tiny chorus of yes's. I was carried somewhere else and into some car and we began driving. At least later I could contact Sage or Prowl and they would know where to find me.

Yes the universe was feeling very nice today. I just hoped it was being good to Sage and Prowl. Lockdown was a dirty opponent, Sage was just a young human teenager and Prowl was just a tactician, not a warrior…

PROWL'S POV

Sage had a few tears running down her face after Lockdown punted MC through the alley to whatever was on the other side. The tears ran through the cut on her face and made red streaks. Lockdown was still facing me with a mean smirk on his faceplates.

"So Prowl, what'll it be, Dead or Alive. I like to let my victims pick." Lockdown offered.

"How thoughtful." I growled. Sage struggled again but Lockdown just clenched her harder which made her wince from the bruises the Trio gave her.

"Lockdown, you have no need for someone without a Bounty. Let the girl go. This is between us." I tried to reason.

"Exactly. So between us, I think that this girl is going to get me what I want. Which is you." Lockdown countered.

"Since when have you depended on other bots or people to get you what you want? I quote you 'if you want something done, do it yourself.'" I said, trying to logic the Bounty.

"Humans don't count. This is just a bargaining chip." He said waving Sage around and making her look dizzy.

"I'll go with you. Just let her go." I said.

"No!" Sage yelled.

"Swear on Primus." Lockdown said, ignoring Sage.

"I swear my Spark, Energon and all the good within me that I will keep to my word if you keep to yours and let her go and never go near her again." I said, making sure to be very specific so Lockdown wouldn't cheat me out. Lockdown nodded and held out a pair of stasis cuffs. I sighed in defeat and turned around with my servo's behind me. A felt the cuffs clamp down and Lockdown set Sage down.

"Prowl, don't do this." She begged.

"Go Sage. Find MC. We'll get out of this. If there's one thing Jazz was good at it was getting out of things. And you're a lot like Jazz. You're smart, usually. You'll think of something." I assured her.

"Run little girly. Before I change my mind." Lockdown growled. Prowl growled in warning. Lockdown just laughed.

Sage sent him a death glare. It looked terrifying on her. Her eyes were so angry, no furious. Pure hate radiated towards Lockdown. He shifted behind me, in what felt like discomfort.

"Go home fleshy." He said, but the edge in his voice was less confident. Sage's steel glance was powerful, mostly it was her eyes, I didn't realize anything could fill with so much emotion. I was a little terrifying and a little impressive. She threw one last hostile glance at Lockdown and walked out of the alley.

 _Be Safe Sage._ I thought as I watched her leave. She held confidence in her walk as she left. I was glad it was Sage that was left to get us out of this. I trusted her to do it. Like I had trusted Jazz all those years ago. She gave off a very similar vibe. It was a good one, it was one I felt I could put hope into.

 _We just might be ok._

 **Wow, sorry short chapter. I have some responses to reviews!**

 **Waterfront: Thank you so much for your two reviews! I'm glad you like the twists I'm trying to add. I'm glad you enjoy the story. To answer your question, MC wasn't technically on guard duty, he volunteered to watch him when they got to the boat, (which of course they never got to.) But I did add some stuff at the beginning about how MC believed it to be partly his fault. But mostly It was everyone's fault. Sorry if there was confusion. Thanks again for the reviews! They mean so much.**

 **MJCM1: Yes I stole the line from Prime. I steal things sometimes. I hope you like the little easter eggs or references I sometimes make, there was another little easter egg in this chapter if you happened to find it. In later chapters, I will incorporate the idea you gave me. Thx so much.**

 **Reviews are the most helpful thing to a writer, I makes you think about your story and what the readers want to read, they can write. They are so encouraging!**

 **Keep writing Keep reading No-**

 **Sage: WAIT! I have to disclaim.**

 **Me: Go for it.**

 **Sage: Nova does not own anything but the plot and her OC's.**

 **Keep writing Keep reading Nova out ; )**


	8. Chapter 8

SAGE'S POV

Options, options. I could follow Prowl and Lockdown, they had just left and couldn't have gotten far. I could find the way to Diego Garcia and try to find this Jazz bot and get him to help me find Prowl and MC. Or I could try and find MC. He wasn't where Lockdown kicked him, which probably meant someone found him. But I had one of Prowl's extra comms, I could find a way to pick up his signal, most likely. Or option four, I could return home and forget this ever happened.

 **THIS IS IMPORTANT**

 **So sorry this chapter is so short, but I wanted to let you guys review and pick an option. What do you think is Sage's best course of actions? Review your idea, and whichever seems the most popular will get written, I will leave one day for your reviews and then I will write the next chapter and post it.**

 **I couldn't pick an option myself because I wasn't sure what you all would like.**

 **Shout outs!**

 **MJCM1: yes the reference was Jack, but this is not TFP, it is a multiverse, just so you don't get confused later. I will leave references once in a while, they are relatively simple and not impossible, so it sparks your memory, it is probably the reference. Thanks so much for the review, it was super encouraging.**

 **Defender54: thx for the fav**

 **Keep writing keep reading Nova out ; )**


	9. Chapter 9

**Wow! A huge thanks to all my reviewers, I did get most saying that they think Sage should find Jazz and possibly MC, or MC and possibly Jazz, so I have a compromise and a spectacular idea. Also thank you to any favs of fols, I'll write shout out's at the end. Thx again for all the incredible ideas. Also, sorry this update took a while, turns out I was gone for the whole weekend so I didn't have a chance to write much.**

Sage's POV

Lockdown had just left with Prowl, following them would be stupid. If I got caught, then Prowl handing himself over would be for nothing. And Lockdown probably wouldn't let me go twice. Most likely Lockdown had no way of leaving Earth. If he had a ship, it would have been destroyed, probably crashed while coming into the atmosphere. Otherwise, he would have hunted us in a ship and not his alt mode. So he most likely had some rebuilding to do. But that also meant I was one a deadline.

All I had was this extra comm. I could try and contact the Jazz bot, but he had no clue who I was and things could go very poorly. And I had no idea how to tap into the frequency of a secure military base with a Cybertronian commlink. I also don't know Jazz, so that's a whole lot of trust I'm putting randomly on the line. Granted, Prowl's word is usually good. If he says this guy is good, then this guy is good. But I was five hours away from Diego Garcia and the whole stowaway thing made me uneasy. If I was caught it would probably get me arrested, and then that's it. I was closer to my town. If I go back there and get help from someone I know, or something and I could also probably contact MC.

All I needed now was some fast transportation to get me there. I scanned the parking lot for something fast and my eyes landed on a motorcycle. I had a quick internal argument.

 _That looks fast enough_

Absolutely not, you don't know how to drive a motorcycle.

 _You could take the smart cart over there._

There is no way anyone will catch me riding in that.

 _Then we take the cycle_

If you die, it's your fault.

 _I realize this, but as Prowl would say, 'the crazy Sage idea might work."_

Don't be stupid he would never say that.

 _Shut up._

I quickly boarding the motorcycle and grabbed the keys from their slot. Some people are so stupid, to leave their keys here?! Who has the audacity to leave their keys here in their motorcycle an expect no one to steal it?

I kept telling myself this as a small layer of guilt rose. But I kicked into gear, I think. I drove out of the parking lot slow until I began to warm up to it. It wasn't so hard. I picked up speed until I was back on the abandon highway heading for home. I tapped the commlink on and off as I drove, mostly receiving static. At one point I thought I heard MC's whistle, but it slipped back into the jumble of noises.

I rode all night and I tried the comm. Again when I got into my city. This time however, I began picking up a soft noise.

:MC?: I called through the comm. It took a few moments, but I suddenly got a quick click from the other end.

:MC! Awsome, listen, I'm coming to find you but I'm going back to my town first to maybe get some help. Give me one click if my town is closer to your position, two if it's further and three if you have no idea.

A quick click sounded through comm..

:Ok, one click for my neighborhood and two for further than that. Three if you don't know.:

Another single click.

:Alright, one for my house two for the junkyard.: I told him.

But he gave me three clicks.

:Are you somewhere else? One yes two no.:

One click.

:Ok, um the school one click the boys home two clicks.: I offered.

Two clicks.

:You're at the boys home? How on Earth did you wind up there?: I asked, but I only received things I couldn't understand.

:Alright, that can all wait, I'll be there in an twenty minutes or so.

I zipped through my town and past my school, then my street, until I wound up in front of the grand looking building. I just dropped the cycle like I would a bike and ran inside.

"Hello? Miss Avery?!" I called into the house. It was silent for a long while but then I heard Jack's voice call 'in the kitchen!' I ran over. He was standing over a sparking MC with a water bottle and washcloth.

"Hi Sage, he looked sick. Which I thought was kinda weird. But I started cleaning up the leaking fluid." He said holding up the blue stained washcloth.

"Jack, where did you find him?" I asked the quiet boy.

"He was in his disk form by the park, all broken. So I brought him back here to fix him up. The other boys went to go get lunch but I wanted to stay. He started making clicking noises partway through until you showed up." Jack explained.

"Ok Jack, I need to tell you a secret." I told him, not being able to think of a lie to get around this. He looked at me expectantly.

"MC, is one of a kind, because he isn't from Earth. And he isn't just a robot." I explained. Jack's eyes widened in understanding. He looked at MC in awe.

"You're an alien?" He asked MC. MC just weakly nodded.

"You're amazing!" He told the little robot. MC gave a happy, yet exhausted whir in thanks.

"But Jack, listen. There are other…bigger robots. Some are good but others aren't. So I've got to get MC and go find one of my other friend, he's a good big robot. But he got captured by another bad robot, and they might hurt him in bad ways, so I need to go rescue him." I explained hoping the little kid would understand.

Jack thought this over for a long time and they looked up at Sage with the puppy dog eyes. She caught her breath, sensing a bad question coming.

"Can I come too. PLeeeeeeaaaaase?" He asked with a slight whine. Sage bit her lip, she didn't want to endanger his life. But he was nine, that wasn't too young.

"I don't know Jack, it's super dangerous. And what about poor Miss Avery and the other boys?" I pointed out. He thought about this for a minute as well.

"I'll promise to come back. But I'll stay out of the way, and I have food and stuff. Miss Avery won't mind if I take some, and even if she's worried, she knows we always come back. Mason and Thomas have run off before on a camping trip, but they left a note promising to come back, and they did." Jack said remembering.

"I guess, in the end it's your choice. But it is really dangerous." I warned him again.

"I think I need to help. I would feel awful knowing you went to go save your friend with MC and I sat here and waited for you to return home." Jack said with certainty in his eyes.

"Alright then, pack all the food you know you can take and uh, do you still have the keys to that old car you guys used to drive around in?" I asked him. He nodded and raced off. I took over his job and used a lot of washcloths to wrap up MC's wounds.

"Alright little buddy, let's go get out crazy friend." I told him, while slowly helping him to his feet. He gave an exasperated click.

"What? I'm the crazy one?" I asked with a small smirk. He nodded after giving me a pointed look.

"Alright, point taken. I'm the crazy one." I agreed while helping him get his footing back. He clicked a thanks and then slowly tried transforming. He got it on his third try and went back and forth, working out the kinks.

"By the way MC, you were really brave back there. I'm so glad your ok." I told him. He nodded and I gave his helm a little pad.

"Just promise to never scare me like that again!" I scolded him a second later. He made laughing noises and nodded in agreement. Jack came out of the fridge and pantry with few bags of food. He also had some rope and jackets.

"I got you a jacket, I thought you might need it." He said nodded at my blood and grease stained shirt which was torn in several places, it probably would have attracted some looks.

"Thanks li'l guy." I said taking the jacket and putting it one.

"What about the keys to that car?" I asked him nervously, without the car we had no way to travel with all this stuff.

"Well, it's unlocked cuz the lock system broke, but I think it's going to need some repairs." Jack explained. I sighed, I wasn't exactly a mechanic. I thought for a moment until an insane idea entered my head.

"Ya know, I think I know someone who can help." I said and gestured towards the door. Jack set his things down and he and MC followed me. We walked a few blocks down until we came to a nice house.

"Who lives here?" Jack asked.

"Some… friend from school, he's learning to be a mechanic." I explained. I took a breath and knocked on the door. The door swung open and he was standing right there. He had a shocked then disgusted look on his face, then it slowly went to terror.

"Antonio. I need your help."

 **I'm sorry, she didn't get to Jazz in this chapter, that will be next chapter, but that's fine since I'm double posting. An enormous thanks to everyone's ideas and review, they really helped this story get back on its feet. Hope you enjoy.**

 **Shout outs!**

 **Pegadron123**

 **Sakura9544**

 **Calliope-Beautiful-Voiced**

 **ReadsToMuchALot**

 **You guys are everything!**

 **Keep writing Keep reading Nova out ; )**


	10. Chapter 10

His first reaction, was to slam the door, but I did that thing in the movies where they catch it with their foot. It hurt. A lot more than I expected. I bit my lip to keep from crying out.

"Please! Antonio! Don't you ever want to do something bigger with your mechanic skills?!" I asked him, hoping to catch his attention. Everyone in our school knew he was a brilliant mechanic, but they knew it wasn't a very good job, he would try to do something else, with higher pay.

It did catch his attention. He opened the door a crack.

"What do you want freak! Is your alien thing with you?" He asked looking up. He was talking about Prowl.

"No he's not. But this little guy is. And he's hurt pretty bad. Also, I need you to fix my car." I explained. He looked confused then sneered.

"Why in the world would I help you?" He asked with disdain.

"You aren't helping just me. If I don't find that robot, and help them with the war, a lot of people could die!" I shouted. He raised an eyebrow.

"Fine! But the moment I'm done you leave, got it." He growled.

"Promise, and you'll never be bother by this again." I promised.

"Alright, get in here. Before you're seen." He said, I stepped inside with MC and Jack and Antonio closed the door behind me.

"Who's the kid?" He asked looking down his nose at little Jack.

"That's Jack, he's also helping." I explained. He shrugged and led me towards his garage.

"Lemme see the little robot." He said gesturing towards MC. MC eyed him warily but shyly moved over and sat down. Antonio looked him over and pulled some tools out.

"Hold still." He told MC, as he began to work. After a long while I couldn't bear the silence.

"Is he going to be ok?" I asked him.

"I don't know, he's an alien. I fixing what I know, but other than that, I have no idea. Don't ask that." He snapped.

"Sorry." I said, getting quiet again.

"Hand me that." He said pointing to a silver tool. I grabbed it and handed it to him. He used it. This continued for another few minutes.

"How did he get broken?" Antonio asked finally.

"A bigger robot kicked him like a soccer ball." I deadpanned. He withheld a laugh.

"I thought the big robot was your friend." He pointed out.

"Different big robot, this one had a chainsaw, he almost killed me. He gave me this." I said, pointing to the drying cut on my face.

"Ow." He said looking at the cut.

"Ya know, I feel like I shouldn't be treating you this nice. But I'm too in shock right now to care." He said in a dull casual voice.

"Gee, how great." I muttered. He rolled his eyes.

"Just remember, I'm helping you." He reminded me. I nodded innocently.

"Oh of course. I'll try not offending you." I said with mock innocence.

"Always got a sharp tongue." He muttered to himself, but he knew I heard him.

"Just so you know whitey, when I'm done you leave. And if you ever come back you'll be sorry." He warned me.

"Trust me, this is a onetime thing." I said narrowing my eyes. Poor Jack was silent for the whole 'on edge' conversation. So was MC.

"I fixed everything that looked wrong." Antonio said finally. "Now get out."

"Wait, I'm going to need you to fix a car as well." I said. He growled in frustration while wiping his Energon and grease stained hands on his pants. I didn't tell him Energon was equivalent to blood. MC didn't seem to 'notice' either.

"Fine, where is it?" He asked gathering up his tools. He acted like helping was the last thing he wanted to do, but he loved mechanics. He was eager to work on something else. I could see it in his eyes.

(Five minutes late at the boys home garage.)

"That's the piece of crap you're going to save the world in." He asked looking the car down.

"No, it'll be a wonderful piece of crap when you're done I'm sure, and I'll let people know that you fixed it." I offered.

"Hell no, I don't want to get mixed up in this." He said. I shrugged and he bent down to examine it. Another few minutes of silence.

"You know, the only reason I'm helping you is because I don't want your big alien friend to some kill me. The moment this is over its back to you being our punching bag, this changes absolutely nothing." He said absent mindedly.

"You've said so." I replied slightly annoyed. Neither of us was happy with the arrangement, but he'd already seen Prowl, and he was the only mechanic in town.

"Are you sure you aren't helping because you want to save the world?" I asked him.

"No, it's because I don't want to die and now you're in my debt." He answered. I groaned, of course I was in his debt now. I couldn't just walk in and say 'here fix my alien' and then follow up with a 'see ya.'

"What exactly would you want me to do?" I asked warily.

"You got a twenty?" He asked. I sighed and rolled my eyes but fished in my back pocket and unearthed a twenty dollar bill. Not exactly sure why I had that with me… oh well, I handed it to him. He took it and pocketed it.

"This still doesn't make us even." He answered. I crossed my arms.

"What does then." I challenged.

"After all this is done, you have to come back. We still need someone to be on the bottom. The kids in our school still need someone to look down at so they can look up at us." He threatened. I almost called it quits and told him to leave with the twenty right now. But then I looked up and saw a little glare on MC's face, Jack was looking angry too. I couldn't just back down again, I couldn't just let him continue to walk over me.

"No Antonio." I said. He looked up with a frown.

"Sorry, didn't catch that." He said menacingly.

"I said no, I'm not coming back. Once I save the world including your sorry aft, I'm out. You'll never see me again. I'm done with you guys. For basically my whole life you've made me feel completely worthless. It's only worse because I've probably only seen my mother for a total of an hour this entire year, my dad went to war and you made it impossible for me to have any friends to talk to." I began, my voice beginning to rise. He looked taken aback and his eyes had a little guilt. I continued.

"Because of you, hardly a soul has cared about me! So I will not allow you to say that in payment for you helping me _save the world_ I have to come back and be your punching bag. I am putting my life at risk here, your fixing a car. So consider it lucky that I don't _make you_ fix my car by threatening to nuke you with my robot!" I yelled, he cast a terrified look at MC.

"I-I, alright, I'll fix the car. And… uh, thanks. I guess, for doing all this." He said in a small voice.

"Now that we have come to an understanding, thank _you_ as well, for fixing my car." I replied in a much nicer voice. He nodded slowly and then turned back around and continued with the gears. MC and Jack both smiled at me and Jack flashed me a thumbs up. I returned it.

That felt really _really_ good to get out. The weight of a ship was lifted off of me and I took in the wonderful feeling of nice long breaths. I wouldn't ever come back here, I would explain to mom that dad was staying somewhere and I went to live with him. But I would never come back, this was my past my history. But history isn't always pretty.

The moment Antonio finished I would leave to find Jazz, Jazz would help me find Prowl. Prowl and I would be reunited.

We just might be ok.

 **Well chapter…something or other. So sorry this update took so long, it was hard to write the exchange of dialoge between Sage and Antonio, but I hope it was ok. I forgot to shout out last time for a reviewer and for that I am so so so sorry, but thanks so much to JupiterGalaxy.**

 **Shout outs!**

 **Calliope-Beautiful Voiced**

 **Guest**

 **antonie-triskova**

 **thanks so much you guys are what keep me going, reviews are so appreciated. BTW, next chapter they find Jazz, promise.**

 **Keep writing Keep reading Nova out ; )**


	11. Chapter 11

"You're not so bad, for a white girl."

Yeah, that was the last thing Antonio said to me before I drove off to save the world. Real encouraging. And admittedly, I was feeling more than nervous when we decided to contact Jazz instead of catching a ride to Garcia. We drove to a cell tower to get the best reception and pulled over. I told Jack to stay in the car while MC and I walked right up by the tower. MC began fiddling with comm. link and at one point a small spark from the tower jumped towards the smaller device. MC clicked in surprise then handed the comm. link to me.

"Is it ready?" I asked taking the link. He nodded with a small whistle. I let out a breath.

"Here goes nothing." I said, and pressed the communicate button. Upon hearing the received signal I said,

:Autobot Jazz?:

:Who's contactin' meh?: came the more than startled response. My eyes widened upon hearing his voice. His accent was so heavy, I was surprised.

:M-my names Sage, I'm a friend of Prowls.:: I said then resisted the urge to smack myself. This was a commlink not a cell phone.

:Howd'ja contact meh.: He replied getting more suspicious by the second.

:Prowl, he gave me a commlink, but then he got captured, and our mini-con friend got a hold of you. We kinda need your help. Prowl mentioned you as a friend, we thought you might help.: I exploded, getting nervous.

:Ah don' know what'cher talkin' 'bout. Whaddaya mean Prowlers captured…Prowl's….: He stopped.

:Jazz? Prowls what?: I asked holding my breath.

:Prowls dead.: He stated with a heavy pain in his voice.

:No he isn't! Lockdown wanted him for a bounty, he wouldn't have killed him.: I said shocked.

:Lockdown? Nah, Prowl didn' make it off tha; Ark. Ah watched it go down, he neveh came out.: Jazz said confusion in his tone.

:Maybe you didn't see him come off the Ace, or Ark or whatever, but he is captured by Lockdown right now and I need you to help me save him.: I said trying to get back on topic.

:Listen, Ah don' know who ya are, I've been goin' crazy since Prowl died and I'm pretty sure you're jus' another one o my crazy imagined ghosts sayin' Prowlers still alive. So I'm gonna turn this comm off befoh I lose mah processor.: He said

:But Prowl is alive.: I pleaded.

:No he ain't, if ya wanna save a ghost from Lockdown, be mah guest, but there's no way imma come 'elp ya, cuz' ya don't exist." Jazz said in a slightly harsher tone.

I growled to myself, this guy was impossible. If he just wanted to make us do it ourselves then _fine!_

:Fine! I'll go save my friend, have fun sitting on the sidelines going insane, by the way I'm a human girl. I don't know if your imagination comes up with that sorta thing. Maybe as one last proof that I'm real. Think about it!: I snapped, and then shut the comm. off. I let out a sigh; I was being more snappish than usual after I stood up to Antonio.

I sighed, that went horribly. But I was more determined than ever now to face Lockdown, we didn't need Jazz's help. We could do it on our own.

"Come on MC, let's get this com back to tracker setting and find Tic-tac, before he gets into much more trouble." I said grabbing my things and stalking back to the car. I threw open the door and climbed in on the driver's side, and then slammed the door back into place.

"Didn't go well?" Jack asked me with a sympathetic look.

"Not at all." I agreed, while heating up the engine and turning back onto the highway.

"Kay MC, where are we going?" I asked him. He looked at the screen on the comm. He clicked a few times and ended with a whistled. I sighed.

"How about one click for left and two for right." I suggested. MC face-palmed at himself and came up looking a little embarrassed then followed up with a quick click. I wheeled left and we took off.

(Time skip, they have now gotten very close to Lockdown'ship.)

MC gave a quick click and I wheeled a last left before pulling over. We quietly got out of the car and shut the doors with as little noise as possible. We had driven off the highway into a forest, which was extremely difficult because I hadn't really practiced much off road skills. After reversing out of a few trees and pushing the car through some mud from the back, we finally found his ship. It looked like it crashed, and made its own clearing.

MC checked his subspace and found two extra, standard pistols. He handed them to me and Jack.

"Alright guys, we're going to go in there and get Prowl, MC you take care of disabling security and stuff, Jack use this whistle to make a distraction and I'll free Prowl. Once Prowl is out we should be able to take down Lockdown. We can do this." I said, trying to reassure myself as much as them. MC nodded and Jack smiled bravely.

We turned towards the dark ship and slowly approached, wincing at every twig that snapped. We made our quiet way to the landing pad and MC used a laser to cut a hole. The freshly made entrance fell will a crash and I flinched, hoping we didn't alert the ship to our presence.

We climbed aboard and crept down the dimly lit halls.

"How does he find his way around?" I whispered, squinting through the dark. Jack shrugged and MC gave a whistle sounding like 'dunno.' We quietly walked through another dark hallway and came to an intersection. MC pointed down one and then to himself and then to us when he pointed the other way.

"Time to split." I asked nervously. He nodded grimly.

"I'll see ya on the other side." I said, quoting just about every movie ever. Jack gave MC a little nod and we split ways. I watched as MC's little form disappeared down the hall. Jack and I began on our way when he disappeared.

It was far quieter without MC's ped steps, and considerably creepier. We walked down another mile long dark hallways before coming to a control room.

"Come on, maybe there will be a map." I said feeling hopelessly lost. Jack and I slipped inside and looked at the enormous red screen. It was still, nothing changed on it, and we couldn't decipher what it was. Suddenly, there was a flash and the screen changed. All the Cybertronian turned to English and a small blue dot appeared in a maze looking picture. Words began to write their way onto the screen. I quickly read them.

"It's MC, he's in the system. He's giving us a map. The blue dot there is us, and the yellow one must be Prowl." I said looking at the map. I whipped out my cell phone and snapped a picture.

"Come on Jack." I said turning out of the room and racing down the next hall, following the map on my phone. We raced around corners and down more halls and through a few more rooms.

"This is it." I said panting and stopping in front of a steel door. It was locked.

"Locked." I growled kicking it with my foot.

"Ow." I hissed, hurting my foot and not budging the door. Cliché, stupid. Why would I kick it?!

Just as I was about to ask Jack if he had any ideas on how to get inside, the door slid open with hiss. We jumped backwards in surprise and Jack dropped his blaster in shock. The tall figure that walked out looked down.

"Squishy?!" Lockdown growled and grabbed us both up.

"I have parasites on my ship. Let me guess, you're here to rescue your friend girlie?" He asked in a tone I found familiar. The same one Markus used when I threw a pebble at him.

 _'you gonna throw it little girlie?'_

"Yes, we are here to rescue him, and you are standing in our way." I growled before pulling out my arm with the blaster and firing it into his face.

"Argghhh!" He yelled and dropped us twenty feet, I landed on my feet and felt pain shoot up them, but it faded a second later, but then Jack fell beside me with a sickening crack, a scream and then passed out cold.

"Jack!" I screamed. Lockdown was still stumbling around. I grabbed Jack under his armpits and dragged him into the open door just before it closed behind me. I dragged Jack to a secluded corner while guilt flooded me. I shouldn't have let him come along. I knew it was dangerous, i knew something like this might have happened, why did I have to be so stupid.

"Sage?" a voice groaned. I gasped and turned around to see Prowl hanging from the ceiling by chains.

"Primus, Prowl. Are you ok, we're going to get you out of here." I said running over.

"No, go, get out of here. Too dangerous. Find Jazz." Prowl said with a cough.

"I tired Prowl, I did. He wouldn't listen to me, I tried but…" I stopped feeling my eyes getting hot.

"Sage, you did good. Just leave, before you get hurt." He groaned.

"I'm not leaving this ship until i have you with me, or I'm dead." I said firmly. Prowl just sighed and then gave another cough. Suddenly a whistle sounded over the loud speaker.

"MC?" I asked looking around.

"He whistled again, it came from the ceiling.

"MC can you hear me?" I asked. He clicked.

"He s-says, some other bot found him. He says it's a-an Autob-bot." Prowl muttered.

"Jazz! It has to be. He must of thought about it and came to help." I said with excitement. MC gave another click.

"J-Jazz?" Prowl whispered, before his optics powered down.

"Hang it there Tic-tac. I'm gonna get you outta here."I whispered, just as the doors slid back open. I jumped and turned around.

"Human, I've had just about enough of you." He said, low and dangerous before transforming his hand into a chainsaw. I swallowed and lifted my blaster.

"Not another step, Bounty Hunter." I replied in a similar tone and setting my eyes into a hard look. He just growled and lunged forward. I saw the spinning blade rushing at my face and I jumped as I far as I could left. I spilled onto the floor and then turned around and fired a few shots. He deflected them easily with his saw and swiped at me again. I ducked as the spinning blade rushed over head and then rolled to the side as it crashed into the floor where I was. I jumped up and ran under his legs and ducking his blade once more, feeling the force of its spin inches from my back.

I fired some more shots at his back, but they did zero damage. He turned around with a snarl and I registered his metal foot flying out just before it struck me in the stomach and I got a brief flight feeling before slamming into something hard and feeling fire spread through my skull. Before I opened my eyes from the darkness, something wrapped around me and began crushing me.

"I've had enough, I when I have enough, I get rid of it." I heard someone vaguely say. My eyes began slowly fading in and out.

"I-I…" I sucked in a sharp breath.

"You what?" The voice of Lockdown growled.

"I c-can't." I forced out. I heard a sharp laugh. But the laugh was abruptly cut off and again I felt he feeling of being in the air, and once again in a metal hand. But this one was warm, and did not seem bent of crushing the air out of me. It held me carefully and so I breathed as I listened to the sound of metal and metal colliding. When the sounds stopped I decided it was a good time to pass out.

"Don'tcha worreh l'il lady, yah gonna be ok." A familiar accent said before my mind slipped in unconsciousness.

Upon hearing the voice I was relieved before passing out, not a normal circumstance… but I found myself thinking

'we just might be ok'

 **Wow, ok that took a while. Hope you all liked the chapter. I got to Jazz finally! I'll dive right into this,**

 **Shoutouts!**

Archangel30507-17-2017Calliope-Beautiful Voiced07-23-2017MJCM107-17-2017MechanicalCaptain07-18-2017ReadsToMuchALot07-23-2017RoboDork9708-03-2017Sakura954407-22-2017Shadow369207-11-2017Waterfront07-09-2017Wildstar8707-10-2017 07-26-2017ganfirl07-10-2017zazzag508-01-2017

 **This should be everyone who followed**

 **Now for everyone who reviewed or favorite**

Archangel30507-17-2017Bluefeather429907-17-2017Defender5407-19-2017MJCM107-17-2017Pegadron12307-22-2017ReadsToMuchALot07-23-2017RoboDork9708-03-2017Sakura954407-22-2017Shadow369207-11-2017WolfieLE07-16-2017ganfirl07-10-2017kimmay9407-12-2017

Guest, Guest, JupiterGalaxy

 **Just a huge thanks to everyone for all your support, hope you are all enjoying this story, any reviews and feedback would be greatly appreciated.**

 **BTW, I don't know if you all knew this but MJCM1 noticed I have little easter eggs in my stories,**

 **Ex: When Prowl says** "How is it that you humans can be so tiny yet so loud?"

 **Ex: Jack is a kid with raven hair, kinda a younger version of Jack TFP**

 **I left another egg in this chapter from TFP season three, quote Ultra Magnus, can you all find it? Review if you think you know what it is**

 **Disclaim: I don't own Transformer, only OC's and the plot.**

 **Keep writing Keep reading Nova out ; )**


	12. Chapter 12

A crack of light. My eyes began sliding open. The brightness shone directly into my pupils and I slammed my eyes shut again. I tried to talk but I only groaned. My sides were on fire. I slowly went back to opening my eyes, the brightness faded into a room that looked like a giant hospital room. There were blurry figures all around me.

"She's waking up." A familiar voice said. Prowl.

"Stay on your berth." An unfamiliar voice snipped in response.

"Jazz, check her vitals." The same voice said.

"Yessir." A familiar accent answered and beeping noises sounded next to me.

I opened my eyes fully to see a reddish orange-ish and white robot in front of me running some diagnostics on a computer.

"Where?" I managed. The robot turned.

"Don't talk, save your strength." He told me. "You're in my medical bay on the Autobot base located on Diego Garcia. Prowl, MC and Jack are all fine." He told me reassuringly.

"J-Jazz?" I asked hesitantly.

"No talking. Jazz is fine." Came the short response. I relaxed, no one else got hurt and Jack and MC were ok, and Jazz defeated Lockdown.

"Don'tcha worreh 'bout us l'il lady, ya jus' save ya strength." Jazz told me. I weakly nodded and relaxed into the pillow. I instead reduced to listening. Jazz had begun talking to Prowl.

"Prowler, mech howd'ja get here, we all thought'cha died on tha Ark." Jazz explained to his friend.

" It's Prowl. I took an escape pod, but it must have put me into stasis, and after who knows how long I was finally pulled into Earths atmosphere where I crash landed." I heard him say.

"Uh huh, an why'd old Lockey want'cha?" Jazz asked him. I strained my hearing.

"Bounty, what else." Came the short response.

"Who's tha payer glitch." Jazz rephrased, knowing that Prowl was avoiding answering.

"Onslaught." Prowl replied. I metally sighed, not knowing who that was.

"The ol' combaticon leader, whas he want with ya?" Jazz asked in mild surprise.

"I don't know, Lockdown wouldn't tell me." Prowl answered, I could see his shrug in my head.

"If ol' slaughty is livin' we might 'ave combiner wars on our servos. Buh we don' have anymore combiners, so thah' could be a real problem." Jazz mused.

"I don't think so. Lockdown told me it was Onslaught, but I also have doubts he told the truth. He never was trustworthy." Prowl said the last part in a darker tone.

"Can't disagreh there." Jazz replied with a sigh. The two were then silent. I took this information into my head. They both knew Lockdown, and somehow Lockdown betrayed them, and on another hand, Prowl had something dark happen in his past that made him so seemingly distant. Oh yeah, and on top of that Prowl's wanted. I tossed it around in my head until it hurt, and I had to stop.

It would come together eventually, I made it my mission to figure it out and I wasn't giving up yet.

(Time skip, Sage is now getting out of the !)

"Easy now." Ratchet told me from his holoform. He steadied me on my feet.

"Thanks Ratchet." I told the docter. I had spent several days in his and had been deemed 'a intelligent being.' Jazz and Prowl had told me this was a great honor, as he seemed to think everyone had marshmallows for processors.

(after hearing some stories on what went on here at base, I somewhat agreed.)

Ratchet taught me everything I might need to know to survive here.

First, he told me never to start a prank war with the bots known and the Terror Twins, or Sunstreaker and Sideswipe

Second, he told me never to engage a bot known as Bluestreak in a conversation

Third, he told me never to wander around base after nine pm unless I wanted to set off every alarm and give a bot named Red Alert a spark attack.

Fourth, he told me never to ask Wheeljack to build something for me or for Ironhide's help with anything.

Fifth, he told me never to ask the definition of anything Wheelie ever said.

Sixth, he told me never to show Optimus or any other bots a worm or other types of insects.

Seventh, he told me to never let Jazz have access to any speakers unless everyone agreed and that I should never surprise Prowl in any way.

Eighth, the most important of all, to never come to his injured because I broke a rule or participated in another stupid activity. He also let me know that more rules are made whenever something bad happens.

I briefly wondered how they were in this war for so long.

"So Jazz, ya got a room here?" I asked him. He smiled and led us out of the .

"Gotta warn'ya though, mah room may come a bit o a surprise." He told me walking down the hall.

"Why, is it all messy?" I joked. He smiled a little mischievously.

"Not exactleh." He answered, and pushed a door open. My eyes were momentarily blinded as we stepped inside.

"Ah 'ave a few decorations." He said grinning and plopping down on a Cybertronian bed. I turned in circles as I looked at everything covering Jazz's walls.

Posters of bands, AC/DC, Linkin Park, Twenty One Pilots, Queen and many others I didn't even recognize. He also had a full set DJ board in one corner and shoved into one corner, a desk.

"Jazz." Prowl said, noticing the desk.

"Somethin' wrong Prowler?" Jazz asked him with a sheepish grin.

"Is that your work desk?" Prowl asked pointing.

"Ah, that is. Ah don' use it to much anehmore." Jazz explained. Prowl just pinched the bridge of his nose and sighed.

"Come one Tic-tac, I bet your room never looked this good." I challenged. Prowl just scoffed and rolled his hard blue optics.

"Tic-tac?" Jazz asked. We both froze. I smiled and Prowl sat down on the berth next to Jazz with his face in his hands.

"Third in command is TIC, and he's a TAC officer. So…. Tic-tac. You do know what a-" I began to explain.

"Slag yeah Ah know what a Tic-tac is. Prowler, she has 'the gift.'" Jazz said with an excitant look in his optics.

"Nooo…." Prowl moaned and fell backwards in unhappiness. Jazz laughed and jabbed Prowl in the doorwing, which made him flinch and hiss. Which made me laugh really hard, which then made my sides hurt.

"Wait wait, whats the gift?" I asked between laughs.

"No ones been able ta give Prowler a nickname without bein' slagged, everyone cept me o course. And ya jus' come along and call 'im Tic-tac. Well, thas certainly somethin' it means Prowler likes ya." Jazz said swinging his feet back and forth. He then turned and looked down at Prowl.

"Ah look, he's all blue in tha faceplates." Jazz said poking his friend. Prowl groaned again in response.

"Blue in the- Wait. You guys can BLUSH!" I shouted in excitement. Jazz snickered and continued poking Prowl. I walked over to the berth and Jazz lifted me up. I walked over to Prowls head and peered at him upside down. Prowl had fully covered his face with his servos so Jazz grabbed his servos and pushed his friend on his back. Prowl was breathing hard trying to resist his friends pushing and I bit her lip trying not to laugh. I pulled out her cellphone and snapped a picture of Prowl, who was completely blue with embarrassment.

"I swear you're both going to be the end of me." He muttered earning another laugh from both of them.

"Come on Tic-tac, Jazz and I saved your sorry aft." I protested with a smile.

"Where did you learn that word." Prowl asked in surprise.

"…You…" I answered blanky. He turned blue again and his head dropped back in defeat. Jazz smiled and said,

"Ya know, We jus' might be ok."

 **I'm sorry, I put my characters through so much, I just needed a fluff chapter.**

 **Thx to everybody again, and please review!**

 **Keep writing Keep reading Nova out ; )**


	13. Chapter 13

The next few days for me were… difficult. I was already used to seeing giant robots, so that certainly helped. But they were all so _full_ of personality. Not like humans at all. They were far more emotional, and everything they said actually meant something. Maybe because they've lived for eons.

But it was also hard to remember what not to do. I got myself stuck in several conversations with Bluestreak. He's not annoying… well ok he's a little annoying. But he's super excited about everything, so he always had words flowing in strung together sentences.

All the bots were interested in 'Prowl's fleshy' so I received at lot of attention.

Because of it, I only saw Prowl once in a while, during his break hour or when I finally slipped away from all the attention. Jazz had time to talk to me about it once in a while. He said the bots were always interested in new people, but it would wear down.

But that wasn't all that worried me. Prowl had been gone so long and already he had so much to catch up on with the war and plans. He would sometimes work until one in the morning, at which point me and Jazz would go in and drag him off the datapads and computers and into the rec room for Energon. Other than that, I've hardly gotten a chance to talk to Prowl. I know it's selfish, but I kinda wish we were back on the road together, just driving. At least we were working together, and got to talk.

Prowl was happy though, all this was normal to him. He was back with his comrades, and no matter how many times he complained about them it was clear he was elated to be with them. I should felt happy for him, but I couldn't.

When I was with him and MC on the 'roadtrip' I felt something I hadn't before. I was nice, comforting to be around. No matter what happened, I was feeling safe. I knew Prowl was going to be there, that we'd pull through. But ever since he started working again, it was slipping away.

Jack had stayed a while but was missing his home and the government agreed to send him back to New Mexico. I hoped he and the other boys were doing alright.

At the moment, I was in my room with MC, hiding from everyone. I was reading him one of my favorite chapter books from my phone. _Ready Player One._ It was a recent novel about virtual reality. MC was enjoying it greatly. I was enjoying watching his faces while I read about the main character Parzival, who defeats an army, and tons of video games to solve a mystery before everyone else.

We came to my room often, to read. It was quiet and peaceful, and brought us both somewhere else for a while. The hectic base was intimidating and tiresome for both of us.

"That's the end of chapter one." I said beginning to put a bookmark in. MC whined in protest. I smiled lightly.

"Ok one more chapter." I agreed and opened the book again. We got through about half the chapter when alarms suddenly blared, red and terrifying. MC jumped up and got in front of me protectively.

"It's alright MC, let's find out what's going on." I said, just as a new voice came over the loudspeaker.

"Attention. All human personnel evacuate base. Decepticon attack! I Repeat Decepticon Attack. All nest soldiers, report to hanger three!" The voice yelled. It was the voice of Captain Lennox; I met him a few times. He was a good brave leader, easily working with most of the bots.

"Come on MC, lets find Prowl." I said pulling him out of the room. He clicked and pointed to the exits confused.

"I have to make sure he's ok." I said and I threw open the door to my room, and into a mess of flames and smoke.

Loud explosions rang through the halls as I sprinted down them, avoiding debris and scrap as I ran. Prowls office was down the hall from my room, so it didn't take me long to get there. I threw open the door and ran inside.

"Prowl!" I shouted looking for his figure. I found a group of Autobots surrounding a nasty looking unfamiliar Cybertronian. He turned his red gaze towards me and gave a nasty smirk. A grappling hook shot out and snagged my shirt, I let out a scream as he dragged me towards him and then grabbed me up in his black clawed servo.

"Don't shoot. Or the fleshy is slag." The con hissed. It had to be a Decepticon. Another few Autobots charged into the room and so suddenly I found gears and metal parts whirling around me. Several sliced me or bashed against me painfully. But two seconds later I was in a helicopter interior and lifting off the ground. I flew to the window and watched terrified and the ground, and the other Autobots got smaller… and smaller….and smaller…

 **Shout outs**

 **Waterfront**

 **Shadow3692**

 **Calliope-Beautiful Voiced**

 **JupiterGalaxy**

 **Guest**

 **Glad you all liked the fluff**

 **Keep writing Keep reading Nova out ; )**


	14. Chapter 14

**Hey guys, it's Nova, i won't be here for four days, i'm leaving tomorrow for a summer camp, so the story is going on a short break. But i swear to get out at least two to three chapters when i get back. You should all also check out my writing challenge KTA. Go to my stories if you're interested. Again so sorry.**

 **Keep writing Keep reading Nova out ; )**


	15. Chapter 15

I shivered in the dark, large cell. The Con who carried me over, named Blackout, had dropped me here and left. It had been hours, many long freezing hours. I heard no sound, I saw no one. I wondered why they had taken me here, instead of just killing me. Blackout used me as an escape, but he had no further use for me when he got away from the Autobots. I swallowed dryly and sadness came over me at the thought of the Autobots, I had begun to get to know most of them, and they were all genuinely kind to me. I mostly missed Prowl, Jazz, and poor MC, who must be worried out of his mind.

It was too painful to think about them, I knew that somehow, they would rescue me. They would find a way, they always did. I wandered my mind away from them and found myself then thinking about my mother. I told her I had gone to visit a friend in the hospital, she hadn't texted back. I pulled out my cellphone, which they Con's didn't realize I had. But I had no way to contact anyone from it. I powered it on and scrolled through my contacts, before I got even partly through the A section a name caught my eye. Antonio. When did I get his number? I clicked on it and read the contact information. I looked at it thoughtfully before clicking on the text button.

S:Hello, this is Sage. I somehow had ur numbr

A :Sage? IDK how u got my numbr. Y R U txt me

S :I'm stuck in a prison cell

A :What u do?

S :Got captured by the bad evil robots

A :OMG, should I come?

A :Of course only if I rlly have 2

S :IDK if theres anything u could do. I was bored.

A :your in a robot prison cell, and you're BORED

S:I've been here 4 hours

A :Y isn't your friend rescuing u

S :IDK, something must be up

A :Yeah, the sky

S :don't be like that

A :like what

S :ur impossible

A : Y thx

S : somoenes coming gtg

A :whos coming?

A : Sage?

A :Hello?

A :don't u dare die. I still want to know how u got my numbr

I looked up and shoved my phone back into my pocket, I heard it buzz a few more times, Antonio wondered what happened. He wasn't so bad really. Like I said, I might have been friends with them if I wasn't fair skinned. The cell door slid open with a hiss. I looked up to the dark black form of Blackout once more.

He rumbled something and gestured for me to follow him. I picked myself off the cold floor and walked out of the cell trailing quietly behind him. He clicked something at me and pushed me through a door. Another Con was inside, wings adorned his back and his glared almost happily down at me.

"Welcome Welcome, please, have seat. And don't mind Blackout." The bot said in a rough but considerably higher pitched voice than most. I carefully sat down.

"Welcome _human_ , I am the high and mighty Starscream, tell me fleshy, what does this place look like?" He said gesturing around him. I looked at the chains and the tools and weapon looking devices.

"A torture chamber." I whispered.

"I'm sorry, your puny voice is too weak. Speak up." He growled.

"It looks like a torture chamber. Sorry if you were too stupid to figure that out." I snapped.

"Oh, so that's how it's going to be?" He asked with a malicious glint in his eye. I swallowed, and pretended I was swallowing my fear with it. It didn't work very well.

"Well, as you have so cleverly guessed, it is a torture chamber, and we have some questions. Failure to answer, means I get to pick a new toy." He snarked gesturing to the devices. I gathered up my courage and as many snarky comebacks as I could think of, beginning it with,

"Try me."

"Oh indeed, this will _try_ you." He said and asked his first question. "Where is the Autobot base located."

"Diego Garcia." I rattled off. He glared at me.

"A tiny island, a lie, it would be too difficult to get back and forth across the waters. You lie!" He scooped up a rod and held it at me. "One last chance." He growled. He didn't know about the government NEST.

"Wait, alright, they're in Canada, in one of the barren areas." I said looking defeated.

"That was almost too easy. Next question. What is the Autobots next plan of attack?"

"I don't know." I answered haughtily.

"Three torture devices says you do know." He said holding up a sharp stick looking thing.

"Washington, they're going to lure you to Washington on the twenty-seventh, but if you go early you'll have the element of surprise. They won't be able to do their plan." I said with another defeated look. Starscream smiled nastily. One last question and you're free to go." He said. I frowned, free to go? That's a new one.

"Ask away." I said.

"How much do you know about the Autobot designation Prowl? Whereabouts? weaknesses?" He asked. I froze.

"Why do you want to know." I asked guarded.

"We have a friend on this ship named Barricade, he wanted a little revenge on the certain Tactician, and we found his knowledge would be helpful to the Decepticon cause, we hired a Bounty Hunter, but he failed, and we kicked him out, no doubt he's hunting around for a little revenge on everyone as well." Starscream muttered his mind wandering. He was talking about Lockdown.

"Prowl would never tell you anything." I declared.

"Oh, but for a Cybertronian, we do not need their cooperation. For a human it is another story, but entering the minds of our race is far easier, even if it gets a little…sadistic." Starscream laughed.

"I don't know much about Prowl, he doesn't really care about anyone so living bargaining chips won't work in his case. Now please let me go." I pleaded in a pretending to be scared voice. I was hurting inside though, it hurt more than expected to say Prowl didn't care about anyone. Did he care about me, was that the feeling earlier. Or maybe he didn't, and only wanted me to stay alive for the roadtrip, and that would explain why he was so distant all of a sudden. Maybe he didn't want anything to do with a weak human like me. I was almost in tears at this point but I helped me case.

"Alright, you're free. Like promised, we have no further use for a weak human, and I don't want to clean up the mess you make when you die." He muttered. He opened a groundbridge and I tumbled out into a woods. It was the middle of the night. It was dark and I couldn't see a thing. The moment I tumbled out and sat up, I heard a low growl. I looked up as gray fur darted between the trees.

Wolves…

 **Sorry, another cliffy, Sage is thrown from obstacle to obstacle. But don't worry, when you see the words 'we just might be ok' it means it'll all end up alright. It didn't happen this chapter, so look for those words and know it means a few moments of peace for our characters.**

 **Keep writing Keep reading Nova out ; )**


	16. Chapter 16

**MCJM1, Screamer didn't use a lie detector… I just didn't think about that when I wrote it. So he was stupid enough to think the human wouldn't lie. I dunno…**

I froze as the gray blurs raced around me in tight, snarling circles. One leaped, its white claws and yellow teeth gnashing. I jumped to the side only to have another block my path. I stumbled back again as the circle got tighter and tighter. One clawed my on the arm but I smacked it off. It only growled while it backed up again. I stepped backwards and heard more growls behind me. I froze again; I looked to the side and up to the trees but there was no escape. Just as they were closing in, there was a car engine. I looked up; it wasn't any bot I knew. But I definitely recognized the car. The car drove straight at me and the wolves snarled and ran off back into the dark trees. I was shaking, and tears were threatening to fall but I held back. The terror was slowly draining away. The door opened and a familiar person got out.

"Antonio?" I asked, with disbelief. "But how?"

"Google Glimpse, phone tracking app." He said.

"They have those?" I asked warily.

"Only if the phone is in your contacts." He explained. I nodded shakily and walked over.

"He opened the driver's side and climbed in so I walked around and climbed into the passenger seat.

"Why'd you come though?" I asked.

"I honestly don't know. Maybe because you aren't as bad as I made you out to be. Or maybe because saving the world seemed like it was a good fit. Maybe I'll even get to do more mechanics, on your robot friends of something." He shrugged.

"You'd actually be a great help. Maybe NEST will take you." I mused. He shrugged again at this and backed out of the forest and to a nearby road.

"Where are we, like how were you able to come find me this quickly?" I asked.

"We're in a forest by our town." He explained.

"You're kidding. I keep making these long trips to get to Diego and then just ending up back here." I complained.

"You still have your comm.?" He asked me. I shook my head.

"Wow that was smart." He said sarcastically. I rolled my eyes, but felt light amusement.

"Come on, we'll go to my house. We can find a way to contact your friends from there." He said and began driving.

"But what about you. Are you in or out?" I asked. He pondered my question for a while.

"In. I'm so so in." He said finally. I smiled, in shock and happiness. I never thought I would become friends, or kinda friends with my former tormentor. But if he could find me not so bad, I could find him not so bad. I was still angry, but just not at him. I wasn't sure who I was angry at.

But that was pushed aside by another thought, Prowl. I knew why he was being hunted. Barricade wanted revenge on him for some reason, if I get Prowl to say why it would clear up some things. Most likely he was being hunted by Lockdown when he came to Earth. The reason he was being hunted, and the reason he knew Lockdown, were completely different. I wondered if the reason he was so in his shell was because of Lockdown or Barricade. I have some more research to do. The moment I got back I was going to ask Jazz what he knew. Then Prowl, then anyone else.

"So then, how are going to get back?" I asked him.

"Vacation." He answered. It didn't clear anything up though, it reminded how Prowl would sometimes do that. It would keep me guessing until i was told.

"What, you think we can book plane tickets to Diego for Vacation, it's a locked down military base." I said.

"No, we're going to go to one of the nearby islands and take a boat from there." Antonio explained. I nodded.

"That should work, but if were caught, bad day for us." I pointed out.

"This NEST group knows you, you should be enough to get us in." He said with another shrug, he did that a lot.

"Ok, well then how are we going to get plane tickets?" I asked.

"My parents said when I was 17 I could have my own trip with one friend anywhere. I haven't told anyone yet, so I could pick without hurting anyone's feelings." He explained.

"Who knew you cared about that sort of thing." I muttered.

"I heard that, that was cruel." He snapped crossing his arms. I raised my in defense and he shrugged again.

"So, when are you turning 17?" I asked.

"Three days." He said.

"Great, so we have three days to prepare." I said he nodded and pulled up at his house. He nodded and climbed out, I followed him.

"Look, my dads gonna question having you here for three days, I'll tell him you're coming with me on my trip, but he'll wonder why I picked a girl and not Liam or Markus. So we'll have to tell him a lie." He said. I already knew the lie that would be needed. Antonio looked like he didn't want to say it.

"You'll have to pretend to be my g-….my gi-." He stuttered.

"Girlfriend." I finished painfully.

"Yeah…that." He looked rather unpleased about the whole thing. I sighed.

"Whatever it takes?" I asked.

"Whatever it takes." He finished. He opened the door.

"Dad I'm home! I've got my friend for the trip!" He called.

"Awesome little man, come on in here!" A deeper voice called voice. I tried not to laugh at 'little man.' Antonio led me inside and into his kitchen.

"Dad, this is Sage, she's coming with me on my trip. She's my G-girl- Girlfriend." He forced, with a matching smile. I gave a fake smile as well.

"Well, it's a pleasure to meet you. I hope my sons been treating you right?" He asked with a kind smile.

"Dad." Anotnio hissed.

"Only joking, come sit come sit. Tell me where you two want to go." His dad said gesturing to the table. We sat down.

"We're going to the island off the coast of Diego Garcia." Antonio explained.

"Lovely. So Sage, will you be staying here until departure?" His father asked.

"If that's alright with you." I said in my best voice possible.

"Of course of course, I'm afraid we don't have an extra room, but I'm sure you don't mind staying in Antonio's?" He said with a 'knowing' smile.

"Course not." I forced out. Antonio managed a forced smile as well.

"Well, we're going to go up to my room. See you later." Antonio said jumping up and gesturing me to follow him. I got up and thanked his dad before following him.

"I can sleep on the floor, you can sleep on my bed if you want." He suggested.

"Um, thanks but the floor is fine. You can have your bed." I replied. He nodded. I found it slightly awkward to sleep in other people's beds.

Antonio silently agreed.

We walked to his room and I sat down on the floor, him on his bed.

"So, what exactly is our plan for three days? How are we going to convince your dad that we're Boyfriend Girlfriend?" I asked.

"I don't know, I'll just be really polite and you just be really sweet to him ok. He'll buy it." Antonio shrugged. I sighed, hoping this didn't put us in any awkward situations. I never liked Antonio, maybe now I could tolerate him, but I knew I would never like him.

I actually thought for a minute if there was anyone I 'liked.' A guy that made me excited when he walked in the room. Prowl's holoform randomly popped into my mind and I jumped. Antonio gave me a weird looked.

"Just a weird feeling." I said brushing it off. He shrugged and turned to his backpack and began packing it. I thought about Prowl again. I was confused now. I had never liked anyone, so I really didn't know what it felt like to like someone. I was probably mistaken. But I thought about those warm arms comforting me in a hug, and suddenly I had never wanted anything more, or felt so terribly by myself. I probably just missed him.

I would find him again…I hope.

PROWLS POV::::

We looked everywhere. She left her comm. so I had zero way of contacting her. I was worried sick, I had been pacing my office for hours. Optimus thought it best that I stay behind because my judgment might be clouded. Jazz also stayed to comfort me, but I was too worried.

"Prowler, she's gonna beh ok." Jazz said watching me pace.

"What if the Decepticon's hurt her." I asked worried.

"Then theh gonna getta whole lotta slag." Jazz assured me.

"What if she dies!" I shouted in frustration.

"She ain't gonna die, you feel tha jus as much as Ah do." Jazz argued. I was hardly listening, I just wanted her to be here in my arm, safe, where no harm could get to her. What if she wasn't ok. What if she was arrested, or injured or tortured or _dead_. If she was dead, it would be all my fault, my spark jumped terrified at the thought of losing her.

My processor was on the verge of glitching, but I ignored it. Sage was missing. And it was my fault….

 **PLZ REVIEW! I am really wanting to know what you guys think of what happened.**

 **Keep writing Keep Reading Nova out ; )**


	17. Chapter 17

The last two days at Antonio's house were miserable, pretending to be his girlfriend was awkward, and extremely painful. At one point he pretended to give me a hug, but it was really tense and stiff and _awkward_. I've never been so awkward in my entire life. But it was the third day and Antonio was driving us to the airport. We had left his house, and could now go back to semi hating each other in peace. After about a forty minute drive we parked at the airport. We grabbed our things and took and shuttle to the main terminal. After we got through that we went through security. Everything was clear and I was secretly glad that I left my comm. and blaster at base. We then walked to our gate and took a seat. I walked to the window and watched the planes take off, and a sudden feeling of dread came over me.

I have never in my life been on an airplane. I was terrified. I swallowed as my heart starting pounding. I knew there was no way around it, so I just dreaded it to come. I watched another plane blast into the sky and I returned to my seat feeling sick. I pulled my feet up and wrapped my arms around my knees as we waiting. Antonio noticed and raised an eyebrow, but didn't comment. I was glad, this would be embarrassing to explain, and I have had enough embarrassing moments now to last me a life time.

"Gate 37!" The flight attendant called. I breathed deeply and we stood up and shouldered our backpacks. We walked into the growing line. We handed the attendant our tickets and began down a tunnel. When we got to the end there was a tiny gap about an inch wide, I could feel wind and see the ground fifteen feet below me. I swallowed again. The small area on the other side was the plane. Antonio walked on instantly. I slowly and carefully stepped safely over the crack, before following him onto the plane. He turned down the narrow isle way and I saw lines of seats going down the plane for about forty meters. Some people were already seating. We made our way towards the back of the plane, to row 37 c.

Antonio sat down first and I followed him into our row, we took a seat and I copied him on how he did his seatbelt. We waited in that row for about ten minutes, and then the plane lurched forward. I gave a short gasp of surprise before my hands clenched on either side of me.

"You ok, you went all pale. Well paler." Antonio stated. I ignored the snarky comment at the end and answered him.

"Never been on an airplane." I whispered nervously.

"There's nothing to be worried about, it feels just like riding in a car, only take off and landing give you vertigo." He explained. I nodded tightly but did not unclench my fingers. The plane turned all the way around and began to pick up speed. The engine roared loudly and I sucked in another breath. We got faster and faster and I heard the engine's loud shredding sound, and then suddenly I felt everything lift. Everything inside of me went jelly like and my eyes widened, I peered out the window. The ground was just below us and slowly getting smaller and smaller. I felt all the speed and pressure on the runway just suddenly fade away as we took to the sky. I was now intrigued by the sight out the window.

After an hour however, looking out the window got boring. I turned to my backpack and pulled out my cellphone. I texted Antonio for fun.

S: Hey, watcha doing?

Antonio then pulled out his phone and checked it, he read the message and turned to me rather annoyed, I smiled.

A: I'm riding a unicorn

S: cool, that's more fun than I'm doing.

A: oh, what are you doing?

S: I'm scubadiving

A: ok, this is officially stupid.

He looked at me with a partly annoyed partly amused look on his face.

"I was bored." I said in defense.

"You know aliens, and you're always bored." He countered.

"What are supposed to do on here for another hour and a half?' I asked in a childish voice.

"I don't know, think about life or something." He snapped.

"In my life, when I'm with my friends, I could die at any moment." I told him, voicing my thoughts about 'life.'

"Do it in your head." He deadpanned. I sighed and turned away. But my boredom was lifted a second later when a cart came by offered snacks. My immediate thought was 'omg it's like Harry Potter!'

"Sure, Antonio, want anything?" I asked, he shrugged and bought some chips and cookies. We ate. It was the most delicious meal I ever had, given I hadn't had junk food in _forever_. After we finished eating I had another thirty minutes to kill, which I did kill by writing some random things down in a journal I had gotten before we left. Thirty minutes later, after a terrifying decent we were on the ground and shuffling off the plane. The pilot announced 'welcome to one of the many islands surrounding our famous military base Diego Garcia.'

Antonio led me off the plane, through the airport and out to the shuttle area. The air here was warm and tropical and so I pulled my jacket off. We boarded a shuttle and drove through the crowded tourist streets. The shuttle came to a hotel, which was our stop and we hopped off. We grabbed out backpacks and walked to the front gate.

"Do you have a reservation?" The guy working there asked in a bored tone.

"Yes, room 23 for two." Antonio told him.

"Second floor, left hall. Enjoy your stay." He said in the dull monotone voice. We nodded our thanks and walked inside. It was a fairly nice hotel, one with those little breakfast areas.

"We check into our room and prepare. I want to leave tonight." Antonio whispered to me. I nodded mutely in his direction. We found our way to our room and Antonio slid the keycard under the sensor. The door slid open and we walked inside. I put my backpack down on the couch and sat down. I turned out my window, I could see the bare shoreline of Diego from the window. That's where the base was. That's where Prowl was. Primus, I missed him. _Wait._ Primus? Since when did I start using Cybertronian terms?

I guess spending time in NEST rubs off on you. I made me smile in spite of myself, but it was partly a sad smile. Mostly because I didn't know if the new life I was thrown into was better or worse than my old one.

It was better in some ways, Prowl was better, Antonio was better, Jazz and the rest of the team were better. But the Decepticon's were worse, it can be so hard to enjoy the better parts when your almost dying or always worrying about someone not coming back from a mission. I sighed, long and low. I would hold on though, I would get back to the better, I had to. I looked again at the shoreline and could almost feel Prowl staring across the water back at me. I felt it, he was there, and soon I would be to.

We just might be ok.

 **THX to all my new followers! Plz review guys, would be so so helpful.**

 **Keep writing Keep reading Nova out ; )**


	18. Chapter 18

The water was freezing, I felt it rush up to the sides of the boat Antonio and I were on. I was around midnight, and we were rowing towards Diego. I rowed hard on the sides, as the harsh wind tore across my cheeks. My hair whipped around and stung me in the face. Waves only a little taller than our boat were coming at us from just about every side. The bitter cold was numbing my fingers, and they were glued with ice to the paddles. I was terrified. I prayed to God and Primus that our boat didn't capsize. Falling into this water would be instant hypothermia and then death.

The only thought keeping my exhausted burning arms turning in slow circles was Prowl. If I could continue rowing for just a bit longer, then I would be reunited with him. I didn't care if I was going back to a deadly alien war, and I didn't care if I never went back to my small town in New Mexico. I just wanted to be wherever Prowl was. Because Prowl had been worried for me, Prowl had cared about me. And it was the best feeling in the world.

Wow, the ice is getting to my brain.

"Not much longer." Antonio called out to me from the front of the boat.

"Good, I'm so sweaty and hot I might die." I answered, trying to lighten both our moods. Though I didn't see it, I knew Antonio had tiredly smirked at my sarcasm. We both rowed harder and at last I could see the dark shoreline of Diego. I sighed in relief. We were about twenty feet away.

CRACK!

Searing hot pain.

Darkness.

Freezing cold darkness.

Antonio's POV

Lightning struck when we were at least twenty feet from the shore. I felt the searing heat, it zapped straight through my jacket and burned my back. The pain was so intense I almost passed out, but a thought kept me awake. Sage. I struggled around and saw the whole back half of the boat missing, burned and broken. I panicked and looked into the dark waters and saw a dark shape slowly sinking downwards. I launched myself over the side and all the burning pain left, and was replaced a second later by harsh bitter stinging of cold. I swam downwards and grabbed some of the fabric of her shirt and pulled her upwards I surfaced and grabbed a nearby floating piece of debris.

I gasped for breath as the cold sapped at my remaining strength. I hoisted Sage onto the wood as well. She was unconscious at there was a black mark down her face and body. Her lips were blue and her eyes were frosted. I swallowed. _Please don't be dead_. I thought as I began paddling towards the shore. My arms were moving sluggishly and burned in exhaustion. My shredded clothes dragged me downwards.

I reached the rest of our boat, but it was in the process of sinking, I grabbed our backpacks and threw them onto the wood piece as well. I then proceeded to struggling towards the shore. When I got about ten feet away, a red alarm began to go off. A few minutes later a helicopter flew over us, I waved my hands as much as I could. They didn't see us. I struggled to open my backpack and unearth some glow sticks. I cracked them and waved them in the air as well.

They were slipping from my hands, my cold dead tired hands. But the helicopter saw us this time. A harness was let down and I pushed Sage into it before I climbed in myself with then backpacks. I held onto her wet cold frame to keep her from falling as the harness lifted us upwards. Something warm trailed down my face. A tear of terror and relief. My dark hair was plastered to my face and I wiped it away and looked upwards to the army men reaching downwards.

Safe.

Prowls POV

The helicopter landed on the shore and a stretcher came out with someone lying on it. Two army men exited after supporting another human. Worry built up in my processor. I opened the hanger doors when they approached. I watched as they passed, the person on the stretcher was covered in thermal blankets. The person walking with support also had a thermal blanket over their head, I didn't know who either of them were.

"We need to bring them to Ratchet." One of the army guys said to me. I nodded and commed Ratchet.

:Incoming patients.: I told him.

:Noted: he replied and a groundbridge opened to the medical bay. I followed the army men through it. Ratchet reached down and carefully picked up the person on the stretcher. The supported human looked forward in worry and reached forward, but almost fell over. The blanket slipped off their head in the process. It was the boy. The one who was the leader of the Trio.

"You!" I growled in anger, trying my hardest to keep myself from glitching.

"Let me explain." The boy said holding up his hands in surrender to me. I gave him an icy glare and he withered under my gaze.

"Let me explain later. Right now Sage needs help." He said calmly. I froze. Then I slowly turned towards the human on Ratchet's medical berth. It was sure enough, Sage. I rushed forward.

"What happened?" I demanded in fear, looking worriedly at her burned skin and blue lips.

"Lightning struck and she fell in the water, I pulled her out." The boy said. I looked over him. His dark wet hair, his dark tired eyes and wet clothing. His clothes were shredded in the back, as if the lighting had seared it off. I regarded him before turning back towards Sage's hurt burned body. I squeezed my optics shut in disbelief.

"Will she be alright?" I asked Ratchet.

"Impossible to know yet." He answered. I vented in worry. I looked down at her, she looked as if she was sleeping, but her face wasn't peaceful, it was twisted in pain. I reached a digit forward and pushed back her wet brown waves of hair, plastered on her face. _Don't you dare die._ I thought. A comm. interrupted my thought.

:Prowler, ya doin' ok, where'd ya go?: Jazz's voice asked through the comm.

:Jazz, come to the medical bay.: I answered.

:Ah'm on mah way.: He answered, with a worried edge to his tone. A few minutes later he walked in. Ratchet hardly acknowledged his presence, as he was busy running several diagnostics and fixing her life support. Jazz walked over and saw.

"Primus." He whispered, his accent vanishing in his worry and shock.

"You there, come here. I need to take a look at you as. Sage's vitals are stable as of right now." Ratchet said, pointing to the boy. Jazz also noticed him now.

"Did'ja save'er?" Jazz asked him. The boy nodded, in a scared nervous sort of way.

"We all owe ya one." Jazz told him. He nodded as he approached Ratchet. Ratchet carefully picked him up and set him on a medical berth as well. The boy looked absolutely terrified that he was picked up. Ratchet then scan him and ran vitals.

"You have several severely burned injuries, I am going to put medicine on them and that's it. Is that ok." Ratchet asked in his calming medic voice. The boy nodded. Ratchet proceeded and when he was finished, stepped back.

"I'm guessing you already knew about us because of Sage." Ratchet asked him. He nodded.

"What should we call you?" Ratchet asked him.

"Antonio." The boy said, in a strong, yet nervous voice. He pushed more wet hair out of his eyes.

I was wondered why Sage was traveling with him. A _boy_? And one who tormented her, nevertheless. Why was he acting so worried all of a sudden? Why would she be with him? Did he all of a sudden start caring about her? Were they together for a human reason? I eyed him suspiciously.

Why doed he all of a sudden get to go from her tormentor, to her friend. Or maybe more than a friend? The thought was ridiculous, but it made me frustrated, it made me want him out of the picture. I was ok with Jazz flirting with Sage, he flirts with all the femmes, but this kid does not just get to walk in and join the club because Sage wants him to. I was about to say something really intelligent to him like 'why are you here pathetic human. What makes you think your good enough to be here with Sage.' But Jazz must have sensed something wrong because he grabbed my arm and pulled me outside.

"Prowler, the kids got nothin' on ya." He assured me.

"What?" I asked confused.

"If Sage'll pick anyone, it'll be you." Jazz said. My optics widened in realization.

"No no no no no no no. It's not like that." I said trying to derail him.

"I saw the way you looked at her." Jazz said, dropping accent and lifting his visor, revealing those old red optics. I sighed. He only ever lifted his visor when he was serious.

"Meister's gone." I said putting his visor back down with steady servos.

"Exactly. You helped me realize that. I thought I knew who I was and what I wanted. But you helped me see otherwise. Now let me help you see what you want." Jazz told me.

"You don't understand." I told him.

"Where does that sound familiar? Oh yeah, that's what I told you word for word. And now here I am one of the most loyal Autobots here." Jazz explained. I vented.

"She's human, she won't understand. And quite frankly, neither do I yet." I told him, before walking past him. I heard his sigh but kept walking. My doorwings twitched in annoyance at me, but I mentally just told them to shut up.

I walked back into the medical bay and to Sage.

I couldn't be with her; she would never like me like that. On top of that, what was wrong with me? I was the quiet logical Autobot, who wasn't supposed to care about anyone. I had learned my lesson the hard way, and swore to never fall for someone again, because when you fall, they usually don't catch you. I couldn't keep debating with myself. I knew the logical outcome.

I was done falling.

 **THX FOR ALL THE FANTASTIC REVIEWERS AND FOLLOWERS! THEY MEAN SO SO MUCH!**

 **Archangel305**

 **Calliope-Beautiful Voiced**

 **Darlinator**

 **Jazzy757505**

 **Knockout Starscream**

 **MJCM1**

 **MechanicalCaptain**

 **Moore98Luke**

 **QueenOfTheSilver98**

 **RaphaelsGirl45**

 **ReadsToMuchALot**

 **RoboDork97**

 **Sakura9544**

 **Shadow3692**

 **SilentFemme**

 **Waterfront**

 **Wildstar87**

 **ganfirl**

 **zazzag5**

 **Keep writing Keep reading Nova out ; )**


	19. Chapter 19

**Hey guys, thx for the wonderful reviews, it's great to see what you think sometime! This chapter is done a little differently, I found a song called 'Home' by Phillip Phillips, and I couldn't help but realize that every line in the song related to this story and my characters, so I'm going to write a quick song one shot, hopefully it will be insightful on my characters.**

 **Hold on to me as we go**

 **As we roll down this unfamiliar road**

The beginning, when Prowl and Sage begin their first road trip, all they have is each other

 **And although this wave is stringing us along**

 **Just know you're not alone**

No matter what the universe decides to throw at them, they aren't alone

 **Cuz I'm gonna make this place your home**

NEST will become Sage's home, and Earth will become Prowl's

 **Settle down it will all be clear**

Prowl needs to settle down and his feelings towards Sage will become clear

 **Don't pay no mind to the demons they fill you with fear**

Whether it's the dark past or the Decepticons, pay them no mind

 **Trouble it might drag you down**

Bad things might happen to either of them

 **If you're lost you can always be found**

Jazz was lost as a Decepticon, but Prowl found him

 **Just now you're not alone**

None of them are alone

 **I'm gonna make this place your home**

The Autobots will be Jazz's home, NEST and the Transformers will be Sage's and having friends will be Prowl's home

 **Settle down it all be clear**

Sage will find out what happened to Prowl, it will be clear

 **Don pay no mind to the demons they fill you with fear**

Sage must ignore the bad things that might happen, and instead live in the moment

 **Trouble it might drag you down**

Antonio might have arising problems when he joins NEST

 **If you're lost you can always be found**

Antonio was a lost soul when he bullied Sage, but he's changing

 **Just know you're not alone**

They all have someone to turn to

 **I'm gonna make this place your home**

This new adventure they were thrown into together will be their new home. Home is where the heart is, there hearts will find their way to each other.

 **Well, that's all. I hope you guys go check out that song if you haven't heard. I just related it so easily to this story and had to do this. Also, music had just been on my mind lately. Have a good day/night.**

 **Keep writing Keep reading Nova out : )**


	20. Chapter 20

Prowls POV:

Sage was still in the medical bay. She woke up only once, only to pass out once more. I spent nearly every waking moment in there with her, and a couple of recharging moment as well, when I had fallen asleep at her medical bed and was woken up to Ratchet's wrench bouncing off my helm.

I was in there now when Jazz walked in. He stopped when he saw me.

"Prowler, how long ya bin in here?" He asked in a _responsible_ voice.

"Please don't start reprimanding me Jazz." I began.

"Nu-uh, Ah ain't listenin ta eny o that scrap. Ya need ta get into tha Rec room and have Energon. When was tha las' time ya refueled anahway?" He asked pulling me up by my arm. I sighed.

"I'm not sure." I muttered.

"Ya not sure." He deadpanned, beginning to drag me out of the medical bay.

"But Jazz, what about Sage?" I asked halfheartedly.

"She ain't goin' anywhere." He said over his shoulder. I sighed in defeat. I allowed myself to be dragged down the hall and sat down in a chair and Jazz walked over to get Energon. He came back with a heated cube of Energon. I held it in my servo's like a little heater. My optics were narrowed in exhaustion. The moment I took a sip of the warm energy I felt it flood my systems. Jazz must have noticed that I just received about half my energy back because he looked at me once before,

"Primus, ya had 'bout five percent ther didn'tcha?' He asked. I nodded dully.

"Thanks Jazzy." I said, only registering the warm heater in my hand that was my drink. I barely saw Jazz shake his head in exasperation as my head drooped onto the table and I struggled to not fall into recharge. Jazz noticed this as well.

"Alright, time ta go Prowler." He said hoisting me upwards and supporting me out the door, down the hall and to my room. He set me on my berth and I instantly fell into recharge, I just saw Jazz leaving and the door closing with a click.

Antonio's POV:

NEST was huge. Probably because there were humans as well as giant aliens living here. The CMO alien, called Ratchet, told me to find Lennox and gave me a card.

'It's basically a NEST hallpass, so they don't arrest you as you wander around. Lennox should be in the main hanger with Optimus.'

I kept that sentence in my head as I wandered around. Hallpass, Lennox, main hanger. I repeated that over and over as I turned down another hallway. But something slammed into me as I turned the corner and I flew backwards several feet and landed rather uncomfortably.

"Ow, what the-" I began, but stopped myself as I looked upwards.

"Om Primus, I'm so sorry. I 'm such a clutz something. Are you ok? Hey I haven't seen you before, are you're a new NEST recruit?" The red and gold female robot spat out looking down at me.

"Uh, more or less." I managed, picking myself off the ground.

"I'm Flareup. Who are you?" She asked in that sparkly overexcited tone.

"Antonio. Pleasure." I muttered, easing up around her. She was considerably smaller than the others and seemed very air-headed.

"Hey listen, I'm trying to find Lennox, ya know where I can find him?" I asked. She looked thoughtful for a second.

"Follow me." She said cheerily and turned down the hall and began walking off. I stared after her for a second, running some thoughts and doubts through my head before catching up to her.

"So, why were you recruited?" Flareup asked looking down at me.

"Oh, well it's a long story. I'm technically not recruited just yet. But once I find Lennox, I should be." I explained. She gave me an odd look.

"If you aren't a recruit, then how are you here?" She asked quizzically.

"Wow, that's a long story. Well, I the kid who escorted Sage back here when she got caught by Decepticons. Luck have it, I'm an engineer, so she said NEST might need my skills." I explained to her. Flareup contemplated this for a second.

"Sage, as in Prowl's human?" She asked. I shrugged.

"Probably, I don't know all the big bots around base." I answered. She nodded.

"Well, in that case, you're going to need a guardian, someone to help you get accustomed to NEST. Nest can be very…how to put it…exciting at times. Strange slag goes down, I'm telling ya." Flareup said with a shake of her head, or helm or whatever.

"Well, after Lennox decides to recruit me, why don't you show me around?" I suggested.

"Me? No one picks me for anything. Well, unless they need something blown up." Flareup answered, looking pleased nonetheless.

"Well, yeah. You're kinda the first one I met here, and you seem a little more relaxed than most of the bots around here." I explained thinking back to Prowl and Ratchet. Also, Flareup was far less intimidating that any of the other bots. Maybe because she was female, I don't know.

"Well, sure. I don' really see why not. We can begin the tour now, on our way to Captain Lennox's office." She suggested.

"Sounds good." I said, and listened while she began to tell me about each room we passed, and all the bots to look out for.

As she talked, I found I hardly rendered a difference between talking to Flareup, and another human. Maybe they weren't so alien after all.

Lennox's POV:

I was overlooking one of my solider's reports when there was a knock on my door.

"Come in." I called, placing the report on my desk. The Autobot door opened, so I by habit looked up.

"Hello Flareup, I don't see you here to often. What's up?" I asked coming around my desk and sitting on the front.

"Well, Antonio wants to be recruited." She said, in the cheery demeanor.

"Scuse me?" I asked, my brow furrowing.

"Antonio. He escorted Sage here." She said gesturing below her. I looked down.

"Ah. Come in kid." I said gesturing him over.

"Lennox, sir. I'm an engineer and Sage said you might want to recruit me to help out." The kid said. I smiled softly.

"Look kid. I know you must think it's pretty cool to help out around an alien base and all. But we're in a war. I just can't endanger you." Lennox explained.

"But sir, I wouldn't be in any war zone, but I can be a huge help. I know tons of stuff; I also worked on some of the bots when Sage asked me to. I could help." The kid protested.

"Look, Antonio was it. The only reason Sage is here, is because Prowl made it very clear that she wasn't going to be shipped back home. And she's not a soldier, she's an intern. She stays with the Autobots and learns about their culture. She doesn't really do anything but strengthen our relationship with our allies. We don't just pick up random kids because they took a robotics or engineering enrichment." I explained as best I could.

"But Flareup is going to be my guardian. I could do what Sage does, and I could help. Just give me a chance to prove myself." He pleaded.

"For Flareup to be your guardian, you would need Optimus's permission.

"Granted." A deep voice echoed from the door. We all looked up. I saluted and so did Flareup. The kid just stared with a hard look in his eyes.

"You're the boss?" Antonio asked. I tried to hint to him to show some respect but Optimus merely smiled.

"Indeed, and you are Antonio, the engineer?" He asked.

"Yes, I was hoping you'd let me stay here and help out? I've worked on bots before." Antonio pleaded.

"I have an analyst, a hacker, a friend, a captain, a second in command, all for our human allies, but I do not have an engineer. So tell me, what can your skills provide for us young Antonio?" Optimus asked him. Antonio thought for a second.

"I could fix stuff. Your alien tech and stuff." He suggested.

"I have a scientist, Wheeljack is fully capable of repairing any damage done to our technology." Optimus carefully countered.

"What about human stuff, is Wheeljack capable of fixing human tech, cuz I could do that." Antonio suggested.

"I believe that is a skill, no one in our army yet possesses." Optimus agreed. I cut in.

"Optimus, we receive new shipment of our weaponry every month." I argued.

"Lennox, at the end of last month, we nearly lost an entire team because the equipment was running low. If Antonio can keep our weapons up and running for a month or even two, we could save the money for higher equipment and it may just give us the fighting edge we have been looking for, against the Decepticons." Optimus explained to the Captain. I sighed, and then looked to Flareup.

"You're going to watch him?" I asked her. She nodded happily.

"Nothing dangerous. Understand. Empty quarters are at hallway three room 5576. Password is 13." I told them.

"Yes!" Flareup said in excitement.

"Thank you Prime!" She squealed before squeezing him arm in a frame crushing hug. He waited until she let go before saying,

"Do be careful, Flareup." He whispered. She nodded, excited.

"I'll tell Elita you said hi!" She called as she tore grabbed Antonio and raced out. Optimus smiled, and was careful to quickly cover it with his battle mask.

"Alright Optimus, spill. Why'd you let him stay here? You know we have several capable engineers, even if they don't do their job, we could always make them do it at any time. Why him?" I asked.

"I have seen him before; in a Cybertronian I met long ago. He has much to go through, and learn. But he needs a push in the right direction, I believe NEST can be that push." He explained, in that old storytelling tone.

"Any old Cybertronian I know." I asked him.

"Not personally. But I'm sure you've heard stories." Optimus replied gravely, before turning out of the room. He said over his shoulder before leaving,

"Ironhide is at the shooting range by the way. I think something was troubling him." Before turning down the hall and walking away.

I shrugged and walked out of my office to go see my friend. I wasn't too worried, something was always bothering Ironhide. I left the report on my desk, forgotten.

(LINE BREAK….)

Sharp metal claws closed around a seekers head.

"Are you a FOOL, Starscream!" Megatron roared.

"My lord, please. Show me mercy!" Starscream wailed.

"Then I suggest you explain to me Starscream, Quickly!" He leader hissed.

"I did not think a human would lie. I did not even know if a lie detector would work!" The seeker pleaded.

"Not what I'm concerned about! Why did you LET HET GO!" Megatron yelled in rage.

"I was showing mercy lord. Please show me mercy in return." Starscream begged.

"I will show you mercy, but I you need to redeem yourself by settling out new guest, and don't cause any trouble." Megatron hissed letting his seeker go.

"Right away, master." Starscream agreed hurrying off.

He transformed and flew down towards the entrance. He landed and transformed again.

A bot was waiting in the shadows.

"Sir, welcome to the Decepticons." Starscream said with a low bow and an annoyed face.

"First of all, I'm not a sir. And you're going to find your voice box removed from your intake if you call me that again." A feminine voice spat out.

And his female clone, Slipstream, stepped out from the shadows.

"Slipstream!" Why did _you_ come?!" Starscream asked his spitfire counterpart.

"I have some more _Prowling_ to do here." She answered, and those old purple eyes gave a glint of malice. She then shoved passed Starscream and made her way into the ship. Right like she owned the place. But she was about to anyways.

 **OK, well end of chapter again. I had another reference in here, by Lennox. And Slipstream has a lot to do with the story, and a certain Tic-tacs past. But I won't say anymore than that. Review what you think just happened!**

 **Thanks for all my fantastics fols favs and R &R.**

 **Keep writing Keep reading Nova out ; )**


	21. Chapter 21

**Hi, I know this is a tiny bit late…I'm sorry. Today was the first day of school so everything might be slower, I could do two things, I could have slow(er) updates, or double updates, where I post two chapters very close together. You decide what you'd rather have; I know it can also be annoying if an author posts to frequently, so yeah. Review what you'd rather have. Now, onwards!**

Sage's POV:

The first thing I registered was the black, the endless endless blackness that surrounded me on all sides. Next, I registered the flaring pain, shooting from the left side of my head all the way down to my toes. The my eyes and sight and smell came flooding in. I worked for a minute to open my eyes, and bright light greeted them. I squinted and blinked, trying to discover my location and what was going on. My eyes finally zoomed into a correct detail and I recognized Ratchet's medical bay. My initial thought was, 'this place again. What did I do this time?' and then quickly came to the conclusion that the second question was a little more important. How did I wind up here?

I remembered Antonio, and a boat. We were crossing the water in a storm, trying to get to NEST. But then the memory is jarred by a quick sharp pain and a blinding flash of light. That was it. I was trying to get to someone… who again? Another memory came to mind, another Autobot. He was different from Ratchet, black and white paint, with red crest on the helm, and wing like structures on his back. Immediate comfort came at the image, but why? I struggled to remember when the doors slid open. I looked up from where I was laying.

"Sage. You're awake. How are you feeling?" Ratchet asked from the doorway.

"In pain." I admitted.

"Well, Prowl will be glad to know you're awake." He noted, walking over to check my vitals.

"Prowl?" I asked, the name ringing a very familiar bell. He looked back in shock, and worry.

"Sage, name everyone you remember." He instructed me suddenly.

"Um, well you. And Antonio and Jazz. Optimus, The twins, Bumblebee, Ironhide, Bluestreak, Wheeljack, Mirage." I continued until I named every Autobot, and several of the humans at base.

"Not Prowl." Ratchet muttered to himself.

"Were you aware you got struck by lightning?" He asked me.

"No! I do remember a bright flash in my memory though. Who's Prowl, the name rings a bell." I told him.

"Prowl was your guardian. I think the lightning must have struck you're central thought process area, so because you were closest with Prowl, you don't remember him. But since everyone else was not your center of attention, you remember them." He explained. I contemplated this.

"Can you bring him in here? Because I do vaguely remember someone…" I trailed off. Ratchet activated his comm. We waited and after a few minutes, where Ratchet silently monitored my vitals, we waited. At last the door slid open and the bot from the image in my head walked through the doors. He stared at me for a few seconds before he said hesitantly.

"Sage?"

I looked him over, and his image and name began to piece together.

"Prowl?" I asked.

"Do you remember me?" He asked worriedly. I racked my brain until it hurt. A memory was trying to force it's way to the front of my brain.

It would have been a peaceful night, if the sky hadn't exploded.

Quite literally. Blue waves of explosion suddenly shot through the sky with a loud bang, scaring me so bad I fell over and my heart gave a jolt so bad it hurt. MC whistled and hid behind me as something black began to fall from the center of the blue explosion. It was hurtling straight towards us.

 _"MC MOVE!" I screamed suddenly and grabbing his metal fingers I dragged him off the field and behind a tree. The object smashed into the ground so hard I felt the Earth tremble. It skidded and I heard flames and sparks being thrown everywhere. I held onto MC so tight I thought I might accidently hurt him. When the trembling stopped all I could hear was a bunch of steam hissing from the friction. We slowly crawled out from our hiding spot to see a huge black pod steaming in the middle of the carnage from the field. MC looked at it intently for a little while, and then with a little excited click he raced towards the pod._

 _"MC! Wait!" I called taking off after him. But too late, the pod doors opened and a huge silhouette slowly came stumbling out. Sorry did I say huge, I meant enormous. It was another robot. Same type of build as MC. Same species._

 _"MC, you didn't tell me you where short for your species." I scolded him taking a nervous step back._

 _He shrugged and then pointed at the bots arm where a face like his, resided. The bot took another shaking step forward and I was able to see his face. It looked strong and smart; it was mostly white with red crests. His blue eyes…optics? Whatever. They were super dim, which meant that he was weak._

 _"P-please…h-help…" He said before beginning to crash to the Earth_...

 _"You're a girl who got kidnapped; I'm the police officer that rescued you. I'll get you anything you need and bill it to the local police station." Prowl told me. I raised an eyebrow in confusion._

 _"No… I'm a girl who met a robot alien and got dragged into a war, got attacked by a bounty hunter, and am helping my alien friend find his comrades." I corrected him._

 _"It's a cover, so we can get you what you need without cash." Prowl explained. I nodded slowly and then a smile spread over my face._

 _"Thank you so much officer, I was so terrified." I said in a tiny little acting voice. He smiled._

 _"It was my honor." He replied heroically._

 _"You're a policeman not a samurai." I teased. He rolled his blue eyes and we walked to the store…_ "

 _Sage?" a voice groaned. I gasped and turned around to see Prowl hanging from the ceiling by chains._

 _"Primus, Prowl. Are you ok, we're going to get you out of here." I said running over._

 _"No, go, get out of here. Too dangerous. Find Jazz." Prowl said with a cough._

 _"I tired Prowl, I did. He wouldn't listen to me, I tried but…" I stopped feeling my eyes getting hot._

 _"Sage, you did good. Just leave, before you get hurt." He groaned._

 _"I'm not leaving this ship until i have you with me, or I'm dead." I said firmly. Prowl just sighed and then gave another cough….._

 _"So Jazz, ya got a room here?" I asked him. He smiled and led us out of the ._

 _"Gotta warn'ya though, mah room may come a bit o a surprise." He told me walking down the hall._

 _"Why, is it all messy?" I joked. He smiled a little mischievously._

 _"Not exactleh." He answered, and pushed a door open. My eyes were momentarily blinded as we stepped inside._

 _"Ah 'ave a few decorations." He said grinning and plopping down on a Cybertronian bed. I turned in circles as I looked at everything covering Jazz's walls._

 _Posters of bands, AC/DC, Linkin Park, Twenty One Pilots, Queen and many others I didn't even recognize. He also had a full set DJ board in one corner and shoved into one corner, a desk._

 _"Jazz." Prowl said, noticing the desk._

 _"Somethin' wrong Prowler?" Jazz asked him with a sheepish grin._

 _"Is that your work desk?" Prowl asked pointing._

 _"Ah, that is. Ah don' use it to much anehmore." Jazz explained. Prowl just pinched the bridge of his nose and sighed._

 _"Come one Tic-tac, I bet your room never looked this good." I challenged. Prowl just scoffed and rolled his hard blue optics._

 _"Tic-tac?" Jazz asked. We both froze. I smiled and Prowl sat down on the berth next to Jazz with his face in his hands._

 _"Third in command is TIC, and he's a TAC officer. So…. Tic-tac. You do know what a-" I began to explain._

 _"Slag yeah Ah know what a Tic-tac is. Prowler, she has 'the gift.'" Jazz said with an excitant look in his optics._

 _"Nooo…." Prowl moaned and fell backwards in unhappiness. Jazz laughed and jabbed Prowl in the doorwing, which made him flinch and hiss. Which made me laugh really hard, which then made my sides hurt._

 _"Wait wait, whats the gift?" I asked between laughs._

 _"No ones been able ta give Prowler a nickname without bein' slagged, everyone cept me o course. And ya jus' come along and call 'im Tic-tac. Well, thas certainly somethin' it means Prowler likes ya." Jazz said swinging his feet back and forth. He then turned and looked down at Prowl._

 _"Ah look, he's all blue in tha faceplates." Jazz said poking his friend. Prowl groaned again in response._

 _"Blue in the- Wait. You guys can BLUSH!" I shouted in excitement. Jazz snickered and continued poking Prowl. I walked over to the berth and Jazz lifted me up. I walked over to Prowls head and peered at him upside down. Prowl had fully covered his face with his servos so Jazz grabbed his servos and pushed his friend on his back. Prowl was breathing hard trying to resist his friends pushing and I bit her lip trying not to laugh. I pulled out her cellphone and snapped a picture of Prowl, who was completely blue with embarrassment._

 _"I swear you're both going to be the end of me." He muttered earning another laugh from both of them._

 _"Come on Tic-tac, Jazz and I saved your sorry aft." I protested with a smile._

 _"Where did you learn that word." Prowl asked in surprise._

 _"…You…" I answered blankly. He turned blue again and his head dropped back in defeat. Jazz smiled and said,_

 _"Ya know, We jus' might be ok."_

"Prowl…. Prowl!" I said, as memories flooded my brain.

"Tic-tac!" I shouted happily.

"The one and only." He answered. I smiled widely. Prowl looked over to Ratchet and he gave Prowl an assuring nod.

Prowl activated his holoform and walked over to me, he knelt down to my level.

"I will never let anything like this happen to you again." He whispered. I held back a few burning tears, and overcame myself by throwing my arms around his neck. He was startled for a second before wrapping his arms around me and returning the embrace.

"I'll try to do less stupid things." I whispered back. He pulled away at this.

"You'd better, don't even get me started on all the times you're _brilliant_ ideas have gotten one of us in deep slag." He scolded.

"Like, may I ask why you came and found me, when you're instructions were to get to safety." He asked, staring me down.

"I wanted to make sure you were alright." I protested. He scoffed and then followed with a recognizable smirk. I smiled upon seeing it.

"You're trouble. But you're definitely worth it." He muttered to me. My smile only grew.

"Someone is smiley today." He noted.

"Someone is happy you were here waiting for me." I corrected.

"Alright lovebirds, break it up. Nothing mushy in my med bay, out Prowl." Ratchet told him, waving a wrench around in the air. Prowl turned an odd shade of blue in his holoform and made his way to the exit.

"Bye Prowl." I called, he turned to wave and instead found himself ducking a flying wrench.

"By Sage!" He called over his shoulder as he raced from the room.

"Hey Ratchet, is MC here?" I asked, remembering my little friend.

"I think so." Ratchet answered.

"You think so?" I asked hesitantly.

"You see, after you got captured, he got angry at himself and disappeared one day, some humans have spotted him once in awhile, but his comm. is off. We think he's still hiding out around base. Seems to think it was his fault. He'll be glad to know you're back." Ratchet explained.

"Poor MC." I whispered to myself, feeling a little guilty.

"You know, I could use the intercom and signal the whole base that you're awake, but you might get more visitors than MC." Ratchet told me.

"Oh would you, I don't want him to hide because of me." I agreed. Ratchet nodded and pressed a button.

"MC, if you can here this, Sage is awake and well, she wants to see you. If you can here, come to the medical bay." His voice echoed through the halls and rooms. We waited in the silence again. I once again heard the doors slid open.

"MC?" I asked looking towards the door. It wasn't him.

"Oh, hi Antonio, they let you stay?" I asked. He nodded and walked over.

"Feeling alright?" He asked, glancing nervously at Ratchet.

"Not really, but I'll get better." I answered.

"Well, I just wanted to check in. And…well…say sorry. For everything, I was most definitely wrong about you, and NEST and the Autobots. Also, thank you. You made me…you make people better." He said.

"Friends then?" I asked holding out a hand.

"Friends." He agreed shaking it.

"I'll see you around, Sage." He told me, before waving and walking back out. I smiled lightly after him, and briefly wondered if it would have been different with Markus or Liam. Hopefully, they get better.

It wasn't a few minutes later, when the door opened again. But this time it was Jazz.

"Jazz!" I said happily, even though I felt slight disappointment that it wasn't MC.

"How ya doin' L'il Lady?" He asked me, before activating his holoform.

"Not super great." I answered, again wincing at the pain in my left side.

"Jus' wanna check in an all, hope ya doin' bettah soon, Prowler was sure worried 'bout'cha. Did'e already see ya?" Jazz asked.

"Yeah, he was in here a while ago." I answered.

"Thahs good. Well Sage, gotta say, yer one tough l'il warrior." He told me.

"Thanks Jazz." I replied with a smile, he was always so positive.

"Well, gotta lot o scrap to catch up on, hope ya do betteh li'l lady, don' ya give up kay." Jazz told me.

"I hope your joking. I would never give up." I protested lightly.

"Ah know ya wouldn't." He agreed with a smile, and after flicking up his visor he left, with a two fingered salute on his way out. I returned it, even though I knew he couldn't see.

I waited again.

The doors slowly slid open for a third time.

"MC!" I asked excitedly. A little low whistle confirmed it.

"MC, I missed you so much!" I said excited. He only cast those glowing blue optics downwards in defeat.

"Come over here little guy." I told him, it a quieter voice. He walked over, each step slow and sad. He stopped in front of my bed.

"MC, I don't blame you for one single thing. It wasn't your fault. It was my decision. Where's the happy little guy I know?" I asked sadly, looking down at him. He looked up at me slowly, with long optics. Optics that wanted to be hopeful, but were scared to be.

"MC, do you have the book I was reading you?" I asked him. He nodded and pulled it out of subspace.

"I leaned over, and ignoring the pain picked him up and set him on the bed next to me. He looked up at me in surprise. I just took the book and opened it to the book mark. He still looked sad, through the first chapter I read, but I slowly slipped away as I continued reading.

The worry and fear left, and was replaced by an intent look wanting to know what happens next. And as I read I did wonder what would happen next, with Prowl and I. What horrific turn of events will the universe throw us into next.

I found out in about a second.

"Sage." Ratchet called to me. I looked up.

"I was looking over the injuries. You're going to need a wheelchair." He said with a slightly sad tone.

And my heart skipped several beats.

 **I'm sorry, awful cliffy. Just horrible of me. I'll give a spoiler for those of you to worried about what might happen. If you don't like spoilers, don't read it.**

 **She will not permanently need a wheelchair.**

 **Shout outs!**

 **Knockout Starscream, thanks, I don't know if you will dislike or like where I'm going with this, but don't worry, you're bound to be surprised**

 **Calliope-Beautiful Voiced, Prowl is always cute when worried ; ) I added what happened to MC in this chapter, and you will find out pretty soon why he's so 'popular'** **among the Decepticons, I just need to give my characters a one to two chapter break from all their crazy adventured.**

 **Another amazing thank you to my wonderful favs fols and reviews and readers. I fairly certain most of you are still reading this, if you're still reading, and you still like it, or you have any comments, review it and let me know. I don't know if there are still people enjoying this story.**

 **Keep writing Keep reading Nova out ; )**


	22. Chapter 22

**This is late… please don't kill me. I hope 'school' will be a decent enough excuse for ya'll.**

Sage's POV:

"I'M BORED!" I called for the fifth time, in complete vain. I was confined strictly to the med bay. Mental sigh…

I had been calling to the thin air, that I was bored, at the top of every hour for a few times. Jazz had visited a few times, but only Jazz. He kept me updated about everything.

Antonio was busy with training, Prowl was recharging and catching up on a ton of desk work (this didn't surprise me, but I was still disappointed he hadn't come to see me.) MC was clearing up why he had been missing, and apologizing for worrying our Prime.

My thoughts stopped at that for a second. Our Prime. It seemed correct, he was such a loyal and fearless and respected leader, no one but the soldiers who'd die for him deserved him; he was in a way our Prime, and only ours. He would always be Prime to _us_ , no one else.

I shook my head to clear it, but I merely gave me a headache. When I was bored, I would think about the most random and pointless thing. I resumed watching the door and occasional telling nobody that I was extremely bored.

Finally a few minutes passed and I stopped shouting. I instead let it be silent once more. You'd think the silence would be nice, given how quiet exactly a good word to describe NEST with, but it was more unnerving that anything really. But I let it sit, knowing it would sound even stranger if a made a small noise.

I stared at the door, in the silence, for many minutes.

They dragged on and on and on and _primus_ they never seemed to end. At last, tired of sitting upwards, I quietly as I could lay back down on the berth.

A single minute passed, _single minute_ , and the sound of the med bay doors sliding open shattered the perfect silence. I pulled myself upwards again to see who was visiting, and I was more than surprise.

Why on Earth and Cybertron would _they_ be here?

"Hi guys." I said quietly, and alerting them to my presence. They weren't looking in my direction, which made me think they were here for alternate motives than to 'visit'

Their attention snapped to me in surprise and Sideswipe's face morphed into an instant, innocent grin. It didn't look completely innocent on him though, only Sideswipe could have that effect.

"Sage, what're you doing in here?" Sideswipe asked as if mildly surprise. I stared at him blankly whilst his twin cuffed the back of his head.

"I was struck by lightning and I'm healing. What are you doing in here?" I asked with skepticism lacing my voice.

"…Well… only… visiting our favorite femme friend." Sideswipe answered extremely unconvincingly. Sunstreaker rolled his optics and sighed. I nodded with a skeptical look on my face. But Sideswipe ignored both of us and walked over to me and sat on one of Ratchet's medical chairs. I turned slightly to look up at him. Sunstreaker joined his brother with annoyance written on his faceplate. I smiled lightly at the look, it was to be expected.

"Sooo…" Sideswipe drew out.

"So what?" I asked when he didn't continue. Sideswipe gave a worry some smile.

"Seen Prowl lately?" Sideswipe asked, getting another smack from his brother. He just laughed it off as always and turned to me for an answer.

"Um… no. Jazz said he was catching up on some recharge. Why?" I asked the red twin. Sideswipe pretended to look appalled.

"Recharing? At this hour? Prowl?" He asked the questions out of order. I blinked at pieced together what he said for a second before confusion etched into my features.

"Prowl's not recharging. Nah. I'd say, he's nervous to see ya." Sideswipe riddled, and earned yet another smack from his brother. I briefly wondered how many times Sunstreaker hit his troublesome twin. Probably more than either would like to admit, well actually Sunstreaker would admit it.

"Why would he be nervous?" I asked bluntly.

"Well, Prowler likes ya." Sideswipe said as if were obvious.

"I like him to, he's my friend." I answered simply.

"Oh, I'm sorry. I think the human term is like _like_." Sideswipe cleared up.

"You do know what that means right?" He asked. I just stared at him. Of course I knew what it meant, it was the term we used in elementary school. It just didn't click right away, what he was trying to suggest.

Like me? Prowl?

I continued staring at the mech.

"Sideswipe's a little fartnugget. Don't listen to him." His brother said giving his brother a flick in the helm. Sideswipe just kept grinning. But now my mind had drifted straight over to something else.

Did Sunstreaker just call his twin a _'fartnugget?'_ I was pretty sure that's what I heard. I pretended to ignore it, and instead answered Sideswipe's previous comment.

"yeah, I know what it means. But that's ridiculous. Prowl doesn't like _me_.

"Think about Sage, Prowl would never be recharging right now unless being threatened to with a wrench wielding Hatchet or dragged there by Jazz. Hatchet's busy and Jazz is in a meeting. People, especially mechs, get very nervous because they wouldn't want to embarrass themselves in front of someone they like. Prowler likes ya." Sideswipe solidified.

I stared at him again, his words not clicking at all. But one thing had suddenly changed, all of a sudden _I_ was nervous to see Prowl because of what Sideswipe said. The little fartnugget.

"Ok Sides, that's entirely enough." His reasonable brother said pulling his crazy twin to his peds.

Sunstreaker threw me a quick, apologetic look before dragging his twin out the doors by some metal on his helm. Sideswipe was just laughing and gave me a last wink before the med bay doors slid back to a close.

Wow.

I was really nervous to talk to Prowl now. But what Sideswipe said couldn't be true. There was no was in all of Earth and Cybertron that an advanced alien, who was one hundred times smarter than me, would ever like _like_ me. (I wasn't comfortable using any other terms at the moment)

I sat in silence for minutes, but my head was spinning so boredom had evaporated from the room.

I wish I could to level headed Jazz right now, I didn't want to face Prowl before I had the chance.

Like if he just happened to walk in at this exact momen-

The med bay doors slid open for a second time and I looked up. My mind mentally punched itself for jinxing my luck.

I stared at who was in the doorway and I found myself thinking,

 _Speak of the devil…_

 **I KNOW IT'S SHORT! DON'T KILL ME. But still a huge thanks everyone who is still reading this. And a big thanks to Knockout Starscream who had faithfully reviewed every time since reading this. I sure hope you guys leave me some long rambly reviews because any thought inspire me to work. Tell me what you think, what you'd like to see happen, or anything at all.**

 **READ THIS::::::**

 **I will be starting a challenge, I saw this challenge on another story and decided to copying it because it was so good. I want everyone who wants to participate, draw a picture of fanart, it can be anything from anything, just make it creative, I don't care if you're a terrible artist or famous artist. Everyone who wants to participate can PM me and I can give them further detail. But there is a prize for winning. Whoever wins gets to create an OC and I will put them into the story. They can ship them with anyone except for Prowl and Sage (duh) Also, it can't be a guardian of Antonio or a guard of Flareup (also duh) but the OC can be literally anyone.**

 **Have fun with this ya'll!**

 **Keep writing Keep reading Nova out ; )**


	23. Chapter 23

**Here's the next chapter, to those who stuck with it faithfully.**

"I just saw the terror twins leaving. They didn't bother you did they?" Prowl asked as a greeting.

I stared at him blankly for a minute earning me a confused look from my black and white friend. His confusion quickly turned to worry and his holoform appeared and rushed over.

"Sage, are you ok? They didn't hurt you or anything did they?" He asked worriedly and taking my hand in his own. I still didn't answer, my gaze just traveled down to where he had grabbed my hand in worry. His gaze followed mine and froze. When it did travel back up to mine, he was slightly blue. He went to set my hand back down by my side but I held onto it. I didn't want him to be scared to be near me.

"No, I'm fine Prowl. Thanks for your concern." I said in a blank voice, that sounded weird to me.

"Are you sure you're ok. You called me by my proper designation." He said with a light smile. This snapped me back into the present. I smiled.

"No matter what I call you. You'll always be Tic-Tac to me." I assured him. He almost laughed at this. After giving me an amused smiled and sat down on the chair beside my bed.

"So, how are you holding up?" he asked casually.

"Skip the formalities Tic-tac, I'm recovering from a lightning strike. I want to know the reason you didn't come see me sooner. I was dying of boredom. Jazz cut some time to come see me." I pointed out. He nodded with an apologetic look.

"I'm sorry Sage, every happened so quickly. I've just been accumulating to everything. I'm sorry I didn't come see you sooner. That wasn't fair of me. I just, I-." His words seemed stuck in his throat.

"Prowl." I said giving his hand a squeeze and getting his attention. He looked up with guilty and ashamed eyes.

"It's been hard for everyone. It's not your fault. If it helps, I forgive you." I said assuring him and looking him in his steel blue-gray eyes. He gave me a light smile and nodded.

"Sage, everything with you has been so… Difficult for me. I'm scared to be with you, because I-" His words stopped again, but this time I had no idea what he meant.

"Prowl. What's wrong." I pressed.

"A long time ago. I was in love." He started. And my heart made a daring leap into my throat.

"Things didn't end well. Actually, they probably ended as bad as they possibly could have ended. I cut myself off after that. From everything and everyone. I became Tac officer, I only dealt with cold hard logistical facts, for so so long. I forget what it felt like to have someone matter to me." He stopped again looking at me with a hard look, but the look was for himself.

"Sage, I don't want to mess up. I don't want to hurt you by accident because I forget how to care about somebody. I'm… I'm scared Sage." He admitted with a weakened look. Prowl was scared? My big strong mech was afraid? Of me?

"Prowl, even if you're afraid. I'm not. I know you. And I know you won't hurt me." I assured him with a look of certainty.

"How?" He asked sadly looking away.

"I know you won't hurt me _because_ you're afraid you will. You're to smart and careful to let yourself make mistakes, especially if you're aware of them." I told him. His eyes softened at this. I was right, and he knew it.

"Ok Tic-tac, now that we've had our heart to spark, come here." I said, and I slowly sat up. He moved to help me upward. He carefully scooped me up in his arms and set me carefully on my feet. His hands didn't leave my waist as he steadied me. Once I was standing up I threw my arms around his chest, he carefully wrapped his arms around me as well.

"You'd better visit every single day from now on." I whispered to him as I pressed my face into his warm neck. He only held me tighter as a sign that he heard.

"I promise, I never let you go." He assured me. I smiled. He then suddenly pulled away with a look of suspicion.

"OK, but tell me about this Antonio." He said. I smiled guiltily.

"What about him?" I asked. His hands tightened around my waist letting me know he was worried. Typical Prowl.

"He helped me get back here. I asked him to." I said hoping he would take the answer. His steel look only hardened.

"You asked you're previous tormenter to help you?" He asked with a tone that said 'really.'

"It seemed like a good idea at the time." I tried.

"No one else on this planet, would ask someone who bullied them to help them." He said looking at me in exasperation.

"First time for everything." I said with a shrug.

"I don't know how I don't glitch at everything you do. I love you to death Sage, but really. _Really._ " He said with an amused smile. My mind was caught on 'love you to death' and he must have realized his words to and turned another adorable shade of blue. I just laughed and gave him another tight hug with he returned with a relived and amused smile.

Antonio's POV:

"Again!" The weapons specialist barked.

"'Hide!" I complained wiping sweat from my head. "I've been at it almost all day. Can I go visit Sage?" I asked, wondering how she was doing.

"You think the cons will give you a break." He barked and making me stand up once more. Luckily Flareup walked in.

"Ok 'Hide. You'll work him to death." She said while bending over and scooping me up. At first this had freaked me out, but I was more than used to it by now.

"Flareup, don't you start with me youngli-" He began, only to be cut off by Flareup.

"I can go get Chromia." She threatened and successfully shut up the trigger happy mech, who seethed in anger. She smiled brightly at him and turned out of the training room.

"Wow Nio, you look a mess." She said using the nickname she gave me. She had explained that Antonio was to long to be shouting on the field or in any other military setting, so she called me Nio and so did the other soldiers I had met so far. The dog tag they gave me also said Nio, so I guess that was my name here in NEST.

"Training is a mess." I corrected. She smiled and carried my to the washracks. She set me down and I entered. I quickly washed my face and arms, and changed the uniform to one of the many stored here. I came back out and she picked me up again.

"So where to now?" I asked her.

"I'm taking you to the mess hall. Lennox said that it would be a good place to meet some more people on base. He said that would be good before Thursday." She said vaguely.

"Thursday?" I asked confused.

"Oh, Director Galloway is coming for the big End of Year gala. We hold I every year to celebrate another year of alliance between the Autobots and Humans and another year of the war. They give announcements about everything that happened in the year and there's dancing and food and Energon." She explained.

"Who's Galloway?" I asked, already knowing what a gala was.

"A stick in the aft." She answered. I snorted. I was slowly learning their swear words so I knew what the sentence meant.

"That bad?" I asked with a smile.

"Oh yes, that bad" She replied. "Which is why you need more friends before the gala. The more people to back you up if you do run into our Director, the better." She assured me before entering the mess hall.

Several soldiers looked up and nearly every one of them greeted her with enthusiasm.

"You're popular." I noted.

"I blow slag up, humans like to blow slag up." She stated blankly.

"Makes sense." I answered.

"Hey James, hi Cir." She said and set me down in the chair at their table. Cir was a girl, with short military styled blonde hair, she looked Russian. James had dark black hair, also military style and looked a little Greek.

"This is Antonio. We call him Nio. He's new here and he's trying to make friends." And that was how she introduced me.

"Thanks Flare." I said dryly. She smiled.

"See ya later Nio. I've got work with Jackie today." She said waving me off and leaving. Jackie was Wheeljack, I was slowly learning names and nicknames. I turned back around to face James and Cir.

"Nice to meet you Nio, this is Cir and I'm James, though you probably heard Flareup say that." He said reaching out a hand to shake.

"I have matters." Cir said in a thick Russian accent and then left the table.

"Um… Anti-social much?" I asked staring after her.

"Meh, Cir's like that. She'll warm up eventually." James assured me. "So Nio, what do you do around here?" He asked. I answered I was an engineer. The conversation and small talk continued. Maybe NEST would work out for me.

I just might be ok here.

 **Ok, so there it is. Read and Review please!**

 **Knockout Starscream, I glad you like my work. Thanks for your support as always.**

 **Shadow3692, I'm glad you liked what I did with Antonio, I needed him to have someone show him around. I hoped you liked their reactions this chapter.**

 **Calliope-Beautiful Voiced, Yes Sunny and Sides and the typical nosy friends, more Sides but still. I hope you liked their reactions this chapter, and don't worry Sunny and Sides will get what's coming to them.**

 **Hope you all liked the chapter, if the rest of you are still reading, and thanks for the reviews I did get. You have no idea how ridiculously encouraging they are. I write better and faster with encouragement. So please please review your thoughts. Sorry for the typos or errors, I hardly have time to edit to have someone to edit for me, so please bear through the errors, I will try to have as little as possible.**

 **Keep writing Keep reading Nova out ; )**


	24. Chapter 24

**them.**

Sage's POV:

I had gotten out of the medical bay about a week ago, and had gone everywhere in my little wheelchair. Ratchet told me I wouldn't need to have it permanently, but because the lightning stuck my legs, they were in a stasis like state. Which I figured meant they had just fallen asleep for a long time.

I've felt my leg fall asleep before, like when you sit it on for too long. It's felt like that, but they felt more dead than asleep. But I trusted Ratchet, if he said I would walk, then I would walk. Just had to wait for my legs to wake up first.

Riding around in a wheelchair did prove useful for some things. For example, I had nothing but time on my hands, so I was able to explore the rest of the NEST base. Now I knew it well enough to give a full tour. Another plus, if I could get someone to push me around I had someone to talk to, and they couldn't leave. Usually it was Prowl, but sometimes it was other bots. It helped me get to know them all a little better.

For example, Hound; he seemed like a big bad warrior, but he loves humans almost as much as we love ourselves. He holds a big interest in our planet and thinks that Earth is cooler than Cybertron.

I also got to talk to Wheeljack a lot, but I think that was Ratchet's doing. I think I'm a distraction from all his insane experiments. Wheeljack is fun to be around, sometimes I don't know what on Cybertron and Earth he's going on about, but it's fun to listen to him talk. When I do understand him, he's a big sweetheart, and a little bit like an awkward guy. When he's not saying science, he trips over sentences and pronounces words strangely by accident. But he's still very polite and kind to me, and easy to be around.

I've talked to quite a few others as well. I got to know Bluestreak, and I know if I ever want to take my mind off things, I just need to spark a conversation with him. I met Mirage, who's a lot more quiet and sarcastic, but we get along ok. I talked to Ironhide twice, both times he encouraged me to come by the training center, and both times I had to remind him I was in a wheelchair, but I think he likes me. He says I have good fire, whatever that means.

And I've talked to Jazz of course, he's always to happy to see me all the time, but he's the most excited when Prowl and I are talking, even though he never joins in to our conversations. He just watches them with a faint grin. It's odd, but it's Jazz.

The only bots I haven't actually talked to are the terror twins. I haven't even seen them since the encounter.

I did see a very angry and very sparkly Prowl the other day, and I have good reason to believe the twins haven't been seen because of it. Either because they were hiding or they were caught. Either way, I'm ok not talking to them.

Right now, I was riding down the hall on my own. It was unusually empty today in base. Even Wheeljack wasn't in his lab, which was almost more terrifying than when he is in there.

My initial thought was 'the event.' I knew there was something happening soon, something important that everyone was preparing for. But no one had enough time to stop and tell me what it was, so I called it 'the event.' Wondering what it might be had become a frequent pastime of mine. I wondered if today was the day it would happen, and that's why everyone was gone and busy.

I rolled down another hallway and found myself in front of the training room stairs. I heard Ironhide barking at some poor soldiers inside. Least I knew where 'Hide was at…yay me. I wheeled away from the training room back down a new hallway. This one led to the mess hall.

Maybe someone would be in there, someone I knew at least. I kept spinning my wheels until I arrived at the big iron door. I reached out to grab onto the handle when it swung open and someone walked out nearly tripping over me. The person stood up clumsily.

"Sage?" The person asked. I looked up and opened my eyes, which closed in surprise.

"Antonio!" I said happily with a grin. He grinned back.

"It's actually Nio now. Military nickname." He said while putting his hands on the handles of my chair and wheeling me into the mess hall.

"Nio huh, too bad." I said. He rasied an eyebrow.

"Why's that?" He asked.

"I didn't get to give it to you." I answered simply. He just rolled his eyes.

"So…where is everyone today, is something going on?" I asked. He stared at me in confusion for second before an 'oh' face lit up his features.

"No one told you about the visit?" He asked me. I shook my head.

"I'm in total darkness over here." I replied.

"The director for NEST is coming for a check-in or something like that, and we're going to hold a gala in his honor and to celebrate the achievements and grieve the deaths of the year. Apparently the director, Galloway, is a complete afthead so no one was looking forward to his visit. He was supposed to arrive in a week, but he showed up today. He said something about coming early to see if they were actually running things well on the spot. He didn't want to give them time to prepare or fix things before he came. But Lennox and Optimus were both surprised and didn't have time to set up a proper tour or anything for him, so it seemed kind of unprofessional. Galloway was technically supposed to observe only, but he needed some extra things, which of course he couldn't get because the whole base wasn't prepared." He explained to me. I nodded.

"That makes sense, when you say they weren't prepared…" I began.

"Yes, I mean everything was as crazy as it gets around here. Wheeljack blew something up, we didn't have time to fix the wrench dents in the medical bay, Sunstreaker and Sideswipe pranked Prowl at the exact wrong moment, Ironhide and Flareup were running explosion tests today and Red Alert wasn't told there would be a new human in base and sounded the alarm. Mirage disappeared, we don't know if he's invisible around here or actually left, but he didn't even want to talk to Galloway. Jazz left his speakers playing on floor three and Bumblebee was out racing today. So yes, that is what unprepared means in case you wondered." He told me while wheeling me towards one of the tables.

"So basically it went as bad as bad could go." I summed up.

"Pretty much." He agreed while sitting across from me. "So anyways, Lennox and Optimus and Prowl are attempting to sort things out and they asked everyone to lay low for a while. That's why base is so empty." He finished.

"Wow, I actually did miss a lot." I said wrapping my head around the eventful day, and how I could have possibly missed it.

"So this Galloway, he's here?" I asked him with slight worry.

"Yeah, but don't worry. If he gives you trouble, I'll back you and so will Prowl and Lennox and Optimus. Also, I'm sure James and Cir would back you up. Well maybe just James. They're some military people I met here, James is pretty chill and Cir's a little tightly wound, but they're both good people." He said with a shrug.

"Ya know, I think Cir and I might bet along, I can do 'tightly wound.'" I told him, thinking of one Black and White mech in particular.

"I'm sure, but you can handle anyone." He argued.

"Anyone? I think that's a little more credit than I deserve." I said with a shake of my head.

"I don't think one person I know has ever been mad at you. Think, has anyone other than…me or the other guys back home…ever been mad at you." He said, sounding a little awkward towards the middle.

"You're right, no one. But Antonio…or Nio. I forgive you for all the things that happened back in New Mexico. That was Antonio, you're Nio now right?" I asked calmly, offering a smile.

"Nio now." He agreed with a nod, and returning the offered smile.

"So… who is this Flareup?" I asked him with a smile.

"Technically, my guardian. She'll love you Sage. She has about 90% of your same energy." He told me with a smile.

"only 90%?" I asked.

"Please. No one has the same amount of energy as you. You're _Sage_." He said with a quirky smile.

"True, true." I answered with a similar smile.

"Ok, but take me to meet some people then. James, Flareup, Cir. I only the 'Bots, and I need human interaction as well. Oh, and can we also find MC, I haven't seen him in like, three days." I said sitting up straighter in my chair.

"Sure Sage." He said with a shrug and smile, he stood up again and began to wheel my chair down the mess hall and towards the door, when a voice stopped us.

"Soldiers. Security check." The voice commanded. Nio turned me around.

I stared at the man that called us out. He wore a name tag, I squinted to read the name.

Are my eyes working right, or did that say Galloway…

….

Lennox let out a low sigh.

"Do not be distressed Captain Lennox." Optimus rumbled at him.

"I'm finding it hard. We have a two days until Thursday and Galloway is here already, we're not going to be able to get anything done with him hovering around us all the time." Lennox stressed at the great Autobot.

"We may be dysfunctional around base some of the time, but we can always pull together and get what needs to be done, done. Especially when it comes to Galloway." Optimus assured him.

"I know I know, but still. I have this awful feeling something will go wrong." Lenox replied running a hand through his hair.

"As do we all captain. As do we all." Optimus agreed.

…..

"Well I wouldn't be _in_ the system yet if I just joined a few days ago." Nio argued with the director.

"Well I still never got word of your arrival, why is that soldier?" Galloway asked harshly.

"I dunno, maybe they never got around to it." Nio snapped at him before turning back to my wheelchair handles. Everything from the moment Nio realized it was the Director, escalated extremely quickly. Galloway wanted to know where we came from, why I was in a wheelchair, and a bunch of other crap that I'm pretty sure had no relevance whatsoever. Nio didn't even give the poor guy a chance, but to be fair, he was most definitely an aft.

"Lennox ought to hear about you. Come with me soldiers." He said sharply. Nio growled in annoyance and pushed my wheelchair in the direction Galloways was leading us.

"Cool down, you're going to get us into worse slag." I whispered up at him.

"Worse that we're already in?" he whispered back.

"I'm sure there's a load of more crap that guy can push at us." I countered. He shrugged and zipped his lips with an innocent look. I rolled my eyes, but my smile gave me away so I turned back around. I could almost hear Nio's smirk behind me. Galloway led down three halls, two of which he looked lost. I'm pretty sure he didn't know where he was going, because we passed Lennox's office twice and he didn't seem to notice. Nio and I said nothing as we followed him, containing our laughter to our heads and hearts.

The third time around, Lennox was coming out and almost ran into Galloway as he was about to march past a third time.

"Galloway…what a…nice…surprise." Lennox stumbled over words trying to change his original sentence, which was probably far less nice than what he just said. He looked over to Nio and I.

"Sage, Nio. Doing ok?" he asked, but his eyes were asking if Galloway was bothering us.

"Fine Sir, thank you." I replied pretending with my formalities, I know Lennox didn't really care about them unless someone was being to insubordinate or it was to a commanding officer. Galloway looked stuck for a moment.

"Was there something you needed Director?" Lennox asked him warily.

"Just…checking these soldiers for clearance." He said hastily.

"Cleared." Lennox said with a shrug. Galloway looked even more stuck at this.

"I need paperwork Lennox, by Friday, background checks and everything. This one says he's twenty, but he doesn't look a day over seventeen." Galloway said, directing his words at Nio.

"Paperwork, got it. Anything else?" Lennox asked him.

"No Lennox, that will be all. I'm going to _try_ and enjoy the rest of my stay in this Hellhole." He replied with snark, and turned on his heel, and stalked back down the hallway.

"Well that went awfully." Lennox said, once he turned the corner.

"We're both seventeen, actually. Backgrounds might be a problem." I said with a grim look.

"No, I can have Ratchet or Jazz rig something up. What's going to be difficult, is keeping that man happy for a few more days until the gala, and he can leave." Lennox replied. Nio looked thoughtful for a moment.

"Maybe we ought to have a holoform week." He said, deep in thought. We both stared at him. He didn't notice for a second, and when he did look up he froze like a deer in headlights.

"What?" he asked, not moving.

"That's a fantastic idea." Lennox said, wide eyed. We can keep the alt modes in the secondary hanger. Yes, this will work. Awesome! Yeah! Totally, thanks Nio." Lennox said clapping him on the shoulder before walking off.

"What…exactly…did I just do?" Nio asked me.

"I'm not entirely sure, but if the bots find out it was your idea, some of them aren't going to be very happy with you." I replied. Nio sighed.

"Ok, now can we go see MC?" I asked snapping him from his thoughts.

"Wha- oh, yeah sure." He said wheeling me in a new direction. We turned out of the hallways the Galloway made us circle and headed up a lift. When it arrived at the top, Nio pushed me left towards some smaller rooms.

"My room!" I shouted happily. I had only stayed in it for a few days before the whole Decepticon fiasco, but I left all my things in there and had made myself at home in minutes. So I was excited to see all my belongings and stuff. The door slid open with a hiss and we walked inside. There was a very excited someone on my bed, who jumped up at the sight of me and ran towards me. MC threw his little arms around my shoulders and clicked happily.

"Hi MC. I missed you to li'l guy." I chirped happily. He whistled and ran back towards the bed and picked up the book I'd been reading him.

"Did you finish it?" I asked him. He nodded happily. Nio pushed me towards the bed and helped me onto it. When I was sitting in the middle, he sat on the edge and MC sat beside us.

"Ya know MC, you were the first one I met." I said with a smile, remember the night. How terrified I was, and then how curious.

"Nio, if it weren't for you I never would have met them." I said with a smile at him. He scoffed.

"So it's me to blame that you've almost died over a million times." He answered sarcastically. I flicked him with my foot and he gave a quick eye roll. MC whistled something and we looked over at him. He pointed to Nio and I and then slammed his servo's together, then he pointed to us again and clasped his servo's together, then finished the charades with a thumbs up.

"You're glad we don't fight anymore, that we're friends now?" I asked him. He nodded with a contented click and sat back again.

"I'm glad we're friends to." I agreed with a smile.

"Me three." Nio said, laying back on the opposite headboard.

MC whistled something in Cybertronian very carefully. To an untrained ear it would have sounded like scrambled Cybertronian, but it was a sentence I'd heard or thought at least a million times. If you listened carefully it sounded like,

'We just might be ok.'

 **Well, sorry that took so long to get done. But it's here at least.**

 **Knockout Starscream, thx again for your incredible support.**

 **Calliope-Beautiful Voiced, I'm glad you liked that scene, also glad you picked up on the subconscious love confession, it was a pain to write. Yes, thank Primus for Flareup, i also wanted to develop Her and Nio's relationship a bit further. Galloway...I'm sorry i couldn't not write him in, he will certainly have something interesting to say about Prowl and Sage...**

 **Keep up the amazing reviews you guys, they help me write so so much.**

 **Keep writing Keep reading Nova out ; )**


	25. Chapter 25

**Thanks for all you lovely supporters, you really mean to the whole world to me! This story is coming to and end pretty soon btw, only about five or six more chapters. It's been a wonderful story to share w/ you all tho.**

As expected, not very many of the bots liked the idea of holoform week, especially because it was for Galloway, who of course thought highly of the idea, though he showed no gratitude towards it. Only Prime and Prowl and Jazz didn't mind to much, oh and Hound. But other than that, everyone had something to say about being cooped up in their alt modes until Thursday. Which was in two days now.

I think Mirage and the Terror twins complained the most. At least Mirage had a reason, now he couldn't turn in invisible when he wanted to opt out of a conversation or encounter, especially with Galloway.

Speaking of the Director, he never seemed to want to let Nio and I out of his sights, we split up so one of us could have some personal time, while the other was tracked. Lucky Galloway can't be in two places at once like the bots holoforms.

The holoforms were also helpful because we could talk to the actually bots in their alt modes while Galloway kept an 'eye' on the holoforms. Whenever Galloway talked to one of them when they were talking to us, we would just let them tune out and take care of Galloway, wherever their holoform was, then go back to the conversation they were having with us. It was pretty trippy.

Right now, I was helping Jazz's holoform set up for the gala.

"So…where do you want these Jazz?" I asked holding up bright pink streamers from where my wheelchair was parked.

"intah-lock them wit tha yellah streamahs every four twists." He instructed. I stared at him blankly.

"Um…I think you know more about decorations than I do. I have no clue what you just said." I answered with a sheepish grin. He chuckled.

"Toss it 'ere." He said holding out his gloved hand. I shot it through the air where he caught it and demonstrated what he was talking about. It was so weird seeing everyone in their holoforms.

Jazz was African American with a strong build, the cloths he coded in where a white jacket, with his racing colors of blue and red on the front, he also coded in his visor, so I still had no idea what his eyes looked like. It looked just like a human Jazz would look like, probably because he picked the design. But it was _human_ , and it threw me off every time.

I was used to seeing Prowls holoform, because it was the first holoform I'd seen, all the way back when we were in a tight spot with Lockdown. But he was locked away in the Autobot brig now, I purposefully avoided that place.

Fingers snapped in front of me and my thoughts vanished. Jazz was standing in front of me with his hand up, giving me the impression that he was the one who snapped.

"I'm so sorry Jazz, my minds been offworld lately." I apologized.

"No trouble L'il Lady, why don't'cha go find Prowler, get some rest with 'im, Primus knows ya both need it." He offered. I nodded and began to wheel my chair out.

"Nah don' do tha, lemme help ya." He said pushing my wheelchair out of the large hanger.

"Prowler ain't too far, I'll jus' drop ya off." He offered with a smile.

"Thanks Jazz." I said sitting back in my chair.

"So, how are you 'n Prowler doing anyways?" He asked.

"Umm…I not sure I understand the question, we're doing fine." I answered with a shrug.

"Ah mean, hows ya relationship…Ah mean ya're still getting' along ok righ'?" He asked, stumbling through the strange sentence.

"Yes, we're not fighting if that's what you mean, but you would know if we were fighting wouldn't you, you're _Jazz._ " I pointed out. He nodded with a quirky smile.

"I jus' mean…how ta say it…." He trailed off.

"Just give the cold hard facts, I think I've probably dealt with worse." I said, getting some ideas where this might be going.

"Do Prowl an ya…'ave anythin' goin' on?" He asked.

"That sentence probably could've been clearer, but I think I know what you're saying." I answered. I briefly remembered the conversation I had with the Lambo Twins, for some reason it was far easier to go about it with Jazz. Maybe because he was just as hesitant as I, and the Twins just threw insane things at my face with intimidating smiles to match.

"Prowl and I…definitely have 'something' but I don't think it's a…like relationship, I see no reason for Prowl to like _me_ of all the femmes on base. Plus, he's an Autobot, I'm just a human." I said with a shrug.

"We care a lot for each other, but I don't want to go out and peg romance." I said with a shrug.

"'Ave ya ever bin in Love?" Jazz asked me in a serious tone.

"Honestly, no," I answered.

"If ya don' know what it's supposed to feel like, don't eliminate the possibility just yet." He told me. I nodded slowly.

"An Prowler sure don' care that yer human." He assured me. I gave him a light smile. Definitely easier to talk to than the Twins.

"What about you Jazz?" I asked him. He raised an eyebrow.

"Whata 'bout meh?" He asked curiously.

"You got any special girl in your life?" I asked him.

"Ah tried, durin' tha war. But no one's fa me." He answered with a small shrug.

"I would think most of the ladies here would fall for you." I joked. He laughed at this.

"Oh yeah, lotta 'em did. But love goes both ways ya know what Ah mean L'il lady." He explained. I nodded thoughtfully.

"No girl is your type." I said.

"Ah wouldn' say tha'. There are qualities Ah'd want in a femme." He answered with a shrug.

"Well…what kinda qualities?" I asked curiously. He thought for a second.

"I'd want 'er ta be strong, but not have walls Ah'd need to break down first. In ma job as a saboteur, Ah have to break enough walls, security and personality walls alike. I don' wanna play no games 'o hard ta get. Ah'd also want 'er ta be compassionate, for Earth and Humans, it botha's meh that most of us dislike Earth, cuz it ain't Cybertron, but it's fascinating if ya look closeleh, so Ah'd want her to look close at thin's. An mos' importanleh, she's gotta be interestin.' Funney and smart an all, so Ah'd have someone interesting ta talk ta." He explained, his visor cast upwards in thought.

"What about pretty and loving?" I asked thinking that's what most guys would want.

"Primus built femmes ta be graceful thin's ta roam Cybertron, sharin' their beauty wit others, so in mah eyes, every femme is beautiful if ya look close enough. As fer lovin', Ah wouldn't care if she hated meh at first, so long as she loved others and this planet. Cuz in tha end, no femme don't fall for tha Jazz mech." He bragged at the end. I smirked.

"Sure Jazz." I answered. He just chuckled and then pointed at the door.

"Here ya are L'il lady, take a nice long break. An Sage," He said kneeling in front of me.

"Yeah Jazz?" I asked looked at his visor, where I could not see his expression.

"Thanks fer sharin'. Ya give Prowler his chance kay." He said holding pinky. I realized he wanted me to promise.

"Promise." I said wrapping my finger around his and shaking on it. He smiled and knocked on the door.

"Little preoccupied." Came Prowls voice. Jazz and I rolled our eyes at each other. Jazz leaned over and hacked the lock. The door slid over with a hiss.

"Did I not say I'm bus- oh hi Jazz, hello Sage." He greeted, instantly forgetting what he was about to say. Jazz and I smiled at each exasperated and amused. Same old Prowl.

"Ya look like ya overworkin yaself again, Sage needed a bit 'o a break, you two should relax fer awhile." Jazz suggested.

"Jazz, I'm rather busy at the moment." Prowl began to launch into a lecture. Jazz was quick to interrupt him.

"Save ya work to tha main database fer meh real quick." Jazz said. Prowl raised an eyebrow but did so anyways on his datapad. Jazz smiled and waltzed over. He leaned over and snatched the datapad out of Prowl's hands.

"Jazz…what are you going t-" Prowl was cut off by the sound of snapping metal.

"Unbelievable." Prowl deadpanned, and snatched back the broken datapad from his friend.

"Jazz! Now I'll need to get another." Prowl complained and shooting his friend an irritated look.

"Well not righ' now ya ain't." Jazz said, and pointed back to me. I gave him a cheesy smile and a friendly wave. He smiled dryly.

"Alright, I can take a hint, but a _hint_ Jazz, not broken equipment ." He said and then wheeled my chair over into his room.

"Jazz, you get out, you're too distracting and you still have work to do." Prowl said putting his hands on Jazz back and attempting to push him out the door Jazz laughed and resisted playfully until they got to the door where he moved forward, and caused Prowl's momentum to go flying and he landed backwards. Jazz began to shut the door and waved while the door closed on his grinning face.

"That mech, always likes an entrance and an exit." Prowl muttered while picking himself up off the floor. I laughed which earned me an annoyed look. This only made me laugh harder.

"You must be sick on that chair." Prowl said, interrupting my laughs. I thought for a second.

"Actually your right, I hadn't realized but I most certainly am." I said looking down at my wheeled prison. Prowl dragged the chair towards his bed, which the holoforms had received for the days stuck as holoforms.

"Can you get from your chair onto the berth?" He asked me.

"Probably, but we'll have an angry medic on our case if I slip." I pointed out. He nodded in agreement. Then, without warning he leaned over and scooped me up in his arms, cradling me carefully.

"Prowl." I said in mild surprise while he moved me towards the bed where he set me down carefully. My feet swung over the side. He sat down next to me.

"Sooo…what exactly are we supposed to do when 'relaxing?'" Prowl asked me from his spot next to me. He was a little close…to a point where I was brushing against his side. But my legs were dead weights so I didn't risk moving.

"You don't do this often, do you?" I asked him.

"Literally only when Jazz makes me." He admitted. I scoffed.

"That's depressing." I said with a smile.

"You didn't answer my question though, you just asked another." He pointed out.

"This." I answered and flopped backwards on the bed. It felt amazing just to lie down. He hesitantly lay down beside me, out feet still on the floor, the joints in our knees and the edge of the bed. He was still next to me, at a touching distance. But for some reason everything Jazz told me was kicking in, and I couldn't have cared less. In fact, Prowl was warm. I leaned into him a little but, our sides pressing together and my head lying on his shoulder. Prowl looked uncomfortable for a second, and I felt him stiffen beside me in surprise. But after a second he relaxed.

"We just lay here?" He asked, in a quiet voice. I nodded my head on his shoulder.

"Doesn't it _feel_ relaxing, I'm so done with doing work and making my brain think, now we just let everything disappear." I said with a contented sigh. He turned his head to look at me and I found that suddenly our faces were inches apart. Prowl blushed instantly and I tried to hold mine back. I'm pretty sure I failed. We just smiled awkwardly at each other before looking straight again.

"Wait, I can fix that problem." Prowl said suddenly. I raised an eyebrow but before I could ask I felt him shift beside me and then he was shifting me, and I found myself pressed completely to his side with his arm around my own shoulders.

"What exactly were you fixing?" I asked confused. He smirked and didn't answer. I raised my eyebrow again but didn't comment. I just kept laying there, he was really warm. It was something I hadn't noticed before. Or maybe he was just warm because of how much he blushes.

On second thought, that's probably it. I looked up at him and say that his eyes were closed, he looked happy and definitely pretty blue in the face. He wasn't sleeping, it had only been seconds. His eyes were just closed. I just smiled to myself and snuggled more into his side, and in response I felt his temperature rise further.

"Little heater." I whispered poking his side. He flinched and pulled me closer to his side so I couldn't poke him.

"Don't do that." He whispered back, amusement laced in tone.

"Is my big strong mech ticklish." I teased. His blue eyes opened and rolled, but a smile was on his face. I just grinned at him and lay my head back on his side.

"You're right, relaxing is nice. I could probably get used to this." He said with a soft smile It was such a smile that I would never have seen on his face when I first met him. It was relaxed and happy. It looked nice on him.

''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''(line break)…,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,

Nio's POV:

Lunch was always like this. I would get NEST food from the cafeteria after training with Ironhide. (Which I'm getting better at.) Then I would find James and Cir.

At first, Cir would try and find some excuse to leave early, but I think James convinced her to stay one day, and now we get along ok. And now that all the bots were in holoforms, Flareup would join, though she didn't eat anything.

Flare and I found the table James and Cir were at and sat down.

"Hey Nio, sup Flare." James greeted. Cir just nodded, but she had something in her mouth. When she did swallow she greeted us as well.

"So how's training with Ironhide going?" James asked. I shrugged.

"It's Ironhide." I deadpanned. James and Cir smiled lightly and Flare gave me a little flick with her finger.

"I'll tell him ya said that." She said in a pretend bossy tone. I scoffed and took a bite of my sandwich. Nothing like military food.

"What about you James, you never told me what you do for NEST. You know I'm an engineer." I told him.

"I'm part of a small strike team that runs with our Autobot TAC sometimes, so I guess you could say I'm TAC cadet." He explained.

"Ya know, we should take you to meet him, he'd like you Nio." James exclaimed suddenly. My eyes flicked nervously. Cir nodded happily, her white hair bobbing up and down. That was one thing about her, she didn't say a lot. I think she was self-coconscious about her accent.

"Uh, I met Prowl He doesn't like me too much…" I said trailing off. My mind wandered back to the many times I had hurt Sage, either with words or fists. I still didn't deserve her forgiveness and I knew it. Prowl knew it as well. Plus, he was her guardian like Flare was mine. I can't even imagine how mad Flare would be if someone did to me what I did to Sage. I don't know how Prowl holds himself back. Then again, Flare is less self-controlled than most…

"Vell, if you come vith us, ve can give you a proper introduction." Cir said quietly. I shrugged and was about to decline when Flare decided to jump into the conversation.

"I think that's a great idea, you do need some more bonding time with all the bots 'round base." She said standing up, along with James and Cir. I smacked my head on a mental table a few times before smiling in a grimace and following them out of the mess hall.

Going to meet Prowl…yay me…

 **Ok, so it's a short chapter and I haven't updated for a while, I'm sorry. Like said before, we are coming to an end, so I need to tie up all my lose ends and throw my plot back into motion.**

 **REVIEWS ARE THE LIFE OF THE STORY, I'm trying everything here guys. Just making sure ya'll are still reading.**

 **Keep writing Keep reading Nova out ; )**


	26. Chapter 26

Nio's POV:

So, as it turns out, the day I went to meet Prowl he was busy, and wouldn't let us in and said to come back another time. The others were disappointed but I was more than pleased to put of the encounter for as long as possible.

The last two days were crazy and everyone was getting ready for the gala. I must admit, Jazz _transformed_ the hanger we were using for the party. The court area of the gala contained the rec. room and mess, serving as the food halls. The training room now doubled as a dance floor, several extra meeting rooms for party space, and the upper deck outside, for a quieter area and where there would later be a firework show, courtesy of Wheeljack, the invention was somehow invisible to Decepticon radar. Only the quarters and the vehicle hanger where the Autobots were, was off-limits. Jazz cut three hours off his schedule to write caution on all the yellow streamers in black sharpie. So, the off-limits area was marked with yellow caution tape.

He said something about it being traditional, instead of using the laser defense. But at least the streamers won't burn anyone in half if there stupid enough to walk through them.

After everything, Sage's recovery and Galloways early visit, and frequent Decepticon activity, we somehow managed to pull it off. Now, everything should go smoothly tonight. I was honestly a little excited, I hadn't ever really been to a formal event, unless high-school dances count.

The gala was first and foremost, a dance. Which means tension was running high between the guy soldiers and girl soldiers. It seemed as if even the Autobot's were edgy about the dance.

What began the tension was the first 'ask.' It was Ironhide whom asked Chromia, and even though everyone knew they were a couple, it meant everyone else should be going with someone too.

Ironhide also asked Chromia in a creative way, by writing 'Chromia gala?' on the rec room wall just before her shift break, so she saw it when she walked in, screamed and tackled Ironhide to the ground in a bear hug. I hadn't really ever seen Ironhide so soft, only with Chromia.

So now it was our job, as in 'all the guys and mechs in base.' To find the most creative ways to 'ask.'

Three other 'asks' have happened since.

The second ask was by the Prime himself. He asked his sparkmate Elita-One, who I found out existed the day he asked. She was on a month long mission but returned for the gala each year. Optimus had called a meeting and told everyone in advanced what he was planning. When everyone was at the meeting including Elita he had given a speech about the special family and friends that matter to him, then went on about if the one who mattered to him the most please attend with him to the gala.

It took Elita three minutes to realized it was an ask. Those minutes were completely silent, and then shattered by her excited scream.

What is it with girls and femmes screaming when they get asked.

The third, and most exciting ask was Sideswipe's and Sunstreaker's.

Just before their femmes shift break, they had climbed through the ventilation shafts to the rec room. Then when Moonracer walked in they hid directly above her and lowered a piece of paper on a fishhook asking her to the gala. Moonracer, curious as to what the floating piece of paper was, grabbed it and pulled it to read it better. The twins apparently weren't expecting this, and neither was the vent shaft, because the screws came loose and both Lambo twins fell on poor Moonracer.

But she had looked up at them from her spot on the ground and laughed. She then agreed to go with them.

After that fiasco, everyone was wondering what the next 'ask' would be, and whether or not it would be interesting. Ironhide's was simple, Optimus's was romatic and the Twin's was…great to watch. I'll give them that.

It reminded me of the years I had in high-school, and the Homecoming and Prom 'asks.' Only here in NEST there weren't school rules, so things could get a lot more interesting. And it would all happen before tonight.

I half wondered I was going to ask… I thought about a few. Cir, maybe. But it seemed as if James really wanted to ask her. I thought about Flare, but I wondered if that would be ok, since she's just my guardian, and even in her holoform, she's another species…

Luckily for me, that answer got cleared up pretty fast. It wasn't too soon after Sunstreaker's and Sideswipe's, when Bluestreak asked a young mechanic in my division. That's why I got to watch. Her name was Mico. And she talked just as much as Blue did. He had walked in and walked over to her with a flower in his hand. Mico turned around when she heard his footsteps behind her. It was funny because Bluestreak didn't even say anything, she saw the flower and smiled and gave Blue a hug. They two most talkative people didn't say a word during their ask.

So there were Cybertronian and Human couples.

I considered asking Sage to go as friends, but then I thought about Prowl. He might actually ask her, and I decided that asking Sage, if Prowl wanted to, defiantly would not get him on my good side.

Finally, after a long debate with myself I decided to ask Flare to go with me as friends.

I began making my way towards her quarters, which she gave me to access code to if I ever needed anything.

By the time I walked to her quarters, I was exhausted, since the Autobot part of base was pretty big. I reached up and punched in the access code, and dragged my tired feet inside. I looked around for a second before realizing Flare wasn't here.

"Oh come on." I complained flopping down on the floor. Well, might as well sit down while I wait for her to come back.

But I was only there for a few minutes before the door slid open.

"Good." I muttered to myself, but when I looked up, I did not find Flare-Up, instead it was Prowl. And was staring down at me with ice in those steel blue eyes.

"P-Prowl." I greeted, then mentally cursed. Why did I have to stutter.

"What are doing in here, soldier." Prowl demanded without hesitation.

"I was waiting for Flare to get back, I wanted to… ask her something." I played off, hoping he didn't realize that ask her something meant ask her to the Gala. But he seemed to already have figured that out because he optics narrowed, and then gave a slight roll.

"Well, you shouldn't be in her quarters. A' because she's your commanding officer, B' she's a femme and it's disrespectful to be in femmes quarters when they're not there, and C' you aren't to be in any Autobot quarters unsupervised." He rattled off in a stern tone.

"She uh…gave me her access code. And why are you in here?" I shot back, with a slight warning in my tone. Well, as much as I could under the look he gave me. Like I was some rotting…something.

"Flare-up asked me to be pick up a report, and she wasn't supposed to give you her access code." He said.

"Oh, well maybe I should just go then." I said standing and starting towards the door.

"Actually Antonio, I'd like to talk to you." He said not moving from the door. I stopped with a worried look on my face.

"About…" I asked slowly.

"I think you can answer that." He answered coldly.

"I'm sorry. I made a mistake. Humans do that! But they also learn, and I've done that. So pleas just accept my apology, I never deserved Sage forgiveness but she gave it to me. I don't deserve yours either but Prowl, for the sake of our friend, please don't hold a grudge on me, at least on the outside. Sage would be so torn. I don't want to make her have to pick. Not that I care who she picks, but I don't want her to go through the pain of doing so. Hate me all you want, to your sparks content, but on the inside. Earth and Cybertron knows I've been trying to do the same." I pleaded.

"Not…about the present. I don't hate you Antonio, and Sage's forgiveness is enough for me. I just want to know why. Why on Earth and Cybertron would make you ever do such a thing to anyone?" He asked, locking me down under his gaze.

I stopped, and everything came rushing back. Everything I tried so hard to forget about. To shove down and keep out of sight. I really didn't want to tell it to this cold stiff Autobot. But I had to explain to someone, and Prowl wanted to hear it.

"When I was…younger. I had a Mother and Father, like you guys have a Sire and Carrier. My Mother always wanted me to be strong. She was a strong independent woman, she was the ringmaster of a legal fighting club. She knew the weak did not survive, and the strong did. She used to tell me the only way you can be strong, is to rid of those who are weak. Only the Strong Survive. If you can't get rid of the weak, then you aren't strong. But, when the club got shut down, she couldn't find another job quite the same around where we lived, and she didn't want to get mixed up in anything illegal. She said she needed to find her dream job again, she left. It was for the family, because with only one working parent we didn't have a lot of money. But she never came back. All I had left were her 'teachings.' I thought Sage was weak, because she also had one parent. I thought because we were in the same predicament, I had to be stronger than her to survive. I had to show here that I could survive with only a father, and her with only her mother could not. I thought it made me stronger, but it really didn't. Maybe on the outside, but inside I was insecure. I didn't really feel right about myself. So, when Sage offered me to go with her as her mechanic, I jumped at the opportunity. I was able to find that making the weak weaker, did not make me strong, it makes them weak. But making others stronger alongside you, will make you strong as well. People started calling me Nio, and Nio decided to not be his mother, who left and made me weak. I was Nio, I was going to be myself and friend, and make others strong." I finished, I had tears in my eyes, but they weren't all sad.

Prowl was silent for a long time.

"You have." He said finally.

"Have what?" I asked.

"Earned her forgiveness, actually both of our forgiveness. Thank you, because you made me stronger. Nio." Prowl said, before nodding to me and turned around and walking back out.

"Wait, Prowl!" I called before he left, he turned around.

"Yes?" He asked.

"Ask Sage, will you?" I asked him. He looked taken aback, then nodded.

"Will do." He answered with a slight tiny smile. I offered a small one in return and he left. So, Prowl didn't hate me anymore.

'We just might be ok.'

 **Ok, so the gala is next chapter, I just needed to write this chapter first because it was important. Nio's past explained! Review any thoughts or questions or concerns you have. Thx for reading, sorry this was late. Until next chapter, which will be soon.**

 **Keep writing Keep reading Nova out : )**


	27. Chapter 27

**I'M SORRY PLZ DON'T KILL ME, I HAVE REASON FOR BEING SO LATE. SCHOOL AND OTHER WORK LATELY. After this story I won't be working on anything for transformers for a while until I finish some other unfinished work. I may once in a while post chapters to other stories I've written, or maybe a oneshot story, like drabbles or something, tell me what you guys think I should do, but don't expect anything soon. Except the next chapter, I swear that will be up soon. Anyways, on with the story.**

Sage's POV:

"Prowl, where are we going?!" I pleaded for a third time, as he led me by my hands down a hallway I had not been down.

"You'll see, just wait." He answered vaguely. I sighed in exasperation.

"Ok, but it better be good." I let him know. He nodded.

"I think you're going to like this." He said, as we turned another corner.

"Close your eyes from here." He said, and looked back to make sure I did. I felt his hands on mine as he pulled me forward.

"Ok, ready….open." he said turned me around. I opened my eyes and my hands shot to my mouth.

"Prowl…it's beautiful. What is it?" I asked him admiring the flower shaped object before me.

"A crystal flower, from my home city on Cybertron, Praxus. I kept a small piece of crystal in my subspace and attempted to grow it some more. It didn't far great on Earth, but it got big enough for me to carve it." He said gesturing to the tiny detail.

"It's…so…" I began, trying to find words. "Remarkable." I settled for.

"I'm glad you like it, because it's yours now." He told me, with a smile most unlike his own on his face. It lost the strict cold edge, and any sarcasm. It was warm, happy and even a little shy.

"Thank you Tic-tac." I said wrapping my arms around him quickly. He returned the embrace.

….(line break)…

Sage's POV:

Prowl had to leave to go help with the preparations for the gala, some classified stuff I couldn't get clearance to. I had retreated to my room for rest before the big night. I lay in my bunk happily while the turning Prowl's gift over in my fingers. It was magnificently carved, and the little details almost looked like tiny lettering.

It was about three minutes of me examining in before I actually noticed. They _were_ letters. My eyes widened in surprise and I squinted and held the pinkish flower to face. It was definitely letters, and it was English to.

I began muttering the letters out loud.

"C-O-M-E. Come. T-O. To. T-H-E. the. G-A-L-A. Gala…" I stopped not even finished reading and froze in my bed. I thought about where Prowl was for a second. Third floor meeting room.

In a split second I was out of bed out my door and sprinting down the hall. I peeled around the corner and slid straight into the elevator doors as they were closing. I straightened and turned to the person already standing there.

"Oh, hi James." I said, breathing heavily. He just stared for a second.

"Are you…ok?" He managed finally. Before I could answer the elevator got to my stop and I sprinted out calling a quick 'yeah' over my shoulder. I turned another corner and slammed straight into something.

"Everything is in the way!" I shouted before standing and taking off, not looking to see if I ran into a person or wall. I finally skidded around one last corner and was headed straight for the door. Just as I was about the push the door, in opened before me and I crashed into the unlucky person in front of me. I felt about a twenty optics stare at me at the same time. I looked at who I crashed into.

It was Prowl. He caught me and both his eyebrows were raised in alarm.

"Sage. Is every-" Before he could finish I cut him off.

"YES!" I shouted throwing my arms around his neck. He looked shocked and confused for a second, then he smiled. I looked up at his handsome face and smiled back. Memories played through my head, of everything we'd been through together and done. When he rescued me and I rescued him, when we went to the FredMyers together and when he scared off the Trio. The first night, when he exploded the sky.

Then suddenly, he leaned down and pressed his lips to mine. Shock leapt from my heart and mind as he kissed me. But I slowly relaxed. He was so passionate, so warm and so so _right_. Before rationality told me I was in a room full of people, I was kissing him back.

A million years later, when he finally pulled away and smiled at me, someone coughed from behind us. Prowl turned deep blue, and I red. Without looking up, I gave a two-fingered salute to whoever was in the room , then dragged Prowl out. We shut the door behind us.

"I'm in love with you Tic-Tac." I told him. He pressed another kiss to my lips

"And I am in love with you." He replied warmly, though shyly, and with that new smile that I was beginning to fall in love with also.

"Don't ever worry again Sage. Because if you're in danger I will help you. If you are trapped I will save you. When you fall, I _will_ catch you. This I swear." He promised as I looked into the deep blue-gray pools that were his eyes. The steel in them had melted, giving me a look at the person inside. Insecure, lost, scared, but 100% certain about one thing. He was 100% certain about me.

"Ever the samurai." I teased lightly, and we remembered all those months ago when we first met, we were both just as lost.

"Ever the joker." He replied casually, then led me down the hallway and to his own quarters. He sat down on his small couch and I nestled down next to him.

"So, tell me." I begged him.

"Tell you what?" he asked innocently.

"Your story, my story. Our story." I said gesturing to each of us. He smiled.

"It's a long story." He reminded me.

"Got any better ideas?" I said, as we began to repeat a familiar conversation.

"That story is most definitely not PG." He argued.

"Ah, but when you live with Transformers, nothing is PG." I added.

"It started the night the sky exploded." He began.

"The peaceful night it exploded." I added. He smiled and nodded. We continued telling the story to each other. Our story.

I thought about the many times we had saved each other. When one of us fell we would always be there to catch the other. I promised silently in my head. ' _When you fall, I will catch you.'_ I promised because I knew he was promising the same.

 **…(line break)….**

 **Sage's POV:**

"Oh, this is bad. This is really, really bad." I said pacing in tight small nervous circles. Nio watched my actions with a bewildered expression.

"Sage seriously, what is with you?" He asked for the third time.

"Bad." I answered continuing my circles. I hadn't answered his question because I was too embarrassed to respond. But he seemed to have magically guessed anyways.

"Did…did Prowl finally ask you?" He asked suddenly. This froze my pacing.

"Umm…maybe. I and I might have nothing to wear to the Gala tonight and I might have never ever danced in my life. Like ever." I explained quickly. He cracked a smile.

"This is serious Nio, this is an emergency!" I shouted, resuming my circles. Nio gave a small laugh then stood up and walked over to me.

"Well, good thing I know a thing or two." He said grabbing my arms and putting them on his shoulders.

"Don't get mushy, I'm just teaching you ok." He said putting his hands on my waist.

"Noted." I said with a quick roll of my eyes. Nio was great, but we both knew nothing romantic would ever happen between us. We were too close for that to happen, if that made any sense whatsoever.

"You just sorta sway, and let me lead. If Prowl's never danced before either, then you guys should be fine." He said with a shrug.

"Ok, simple enough, but my wardrobe still consists of jeans and T-shirts." I reminded him.

"Well, I can't help you there sister." He said with a shrug before pulling away and sitting back down. I sat next to him.

"So I'm screwed?" I asked with a sigh.

"Mmm…no, actually I might know someone who could help you." He said standing.

"Oh, I also have nothing to wear either." He let me know. I thought for a second, then smiled.

"I might have someone who could help you." I said with a snap of my fingers.

"Get them and bring them to the rec room, I'll do the same." He said, standing with a sudden new purpose. I stood as well.

"Break." I said, as we made for the door. He nodded and we turned separate ways down the hall.

….(line break)…..

Sage's POV:

I entered the with Jazz in tow.

"Realla Sage, where we goin'?" He asked again.

"No time, we really got to get there. You'll understand." I said pulling him towards the table where Nio was sitting.

"Heya Nio, Cir." Jazz greeted the other two that were sitting there.

"Nio needs help Jazz, getting ready for tonight." I explained.

"Ans Cir, Sage also needs help getting ready." Nio explained to Sage. Cir and Jazz looked at each other with similar confused but amused smiles.

"Sure Nio, come ta mah quarters why don't'cha." Jazz suggested, and he gestured for Nio to come with him. Nio stood and followed Jazz out.

Cir regarded me for a moment before giving a nervous smile.

"Come on, I can help you vith you costume." She said in that thick accent. I smiled.

"Thanks." I said following her out of the rec room also.

She led me down a new hallway and turned left, then opened a door. Most likely her room. She led me inside.

"I have a couple dresses you might like." She said leading me to what looked like a closet. She opened it revealing multiple colors.

"Wow, Cir you really have a lot of dresses." I noted taking in the pretty colors and eccentric fabrics.

"My grandmother vas Russian royalty, she gave me many of her dresses." She spoke softly. I nodded.

"There very pretty." I said with a smile. She smiled back.

"Thank you. Now vhat vould look a nice color on you." She said, studying me for a second. Then she pulled out a dark blue dress. She held it up to me then shook her head.

"Thees vould look nice vith your dark curls, but not vith your amber eyes." She said this mostly to herself. I just nodded. She then pulled out a white one.

"I vas going to vear this, but it might look good on you." She said holding it up to me. I looked at the silvery and white colors. It would look amazing with her sparkly blue eyes and platinum hair.

"No, that will look stunning on you. You wear I it." I told her, pushing the dress down. She looked happy at this.

"Thank you. Hmm, I wonder." She said suddenly looking me over once more. "Yes… I vink I have somezing zat vill vork." She said, excitement bringing her accent out very thickly. She once more rummaged in the closet. After a moment she pulled out a reddish colored dress. It was more like a dark auburn color.

"Yes this vill do nicely." She said holding it up to me. The design was simple, going to about my ankles, it was a simple gown with a decorated top, the sleeves hung by the sides, so they would spill off my shoulders, one went further down the other in a waterfall like fashion.

"It's perfect." I said with a smile. She smiled back.

"Ze bathroom is right zere, change quickly, and I vill help you vith your hair and makeup." She told me. Small surprise caught me, I hadn't even considered makeup, or hair. I really had zero experience with this stuff.

"Thanks again Cir." I said, before I turned into the bathroom. Quickly I slipped out of my T-shirt and jeans and pulled on the red gown, it was soft and smooth on my skin. I twirled a bit, and the dress moved around in me in swirls. I smiled, it felt nice to look good. A new experience, but a good one. I smoothed out the last few wrinkles and then opened the door. Cir had also changed into her white gown, it was similar to mine, but it was less gown like and instead hung more straight at her sides. It went down very close to her toes.

"You look amazing." I told her with a smile. She smiled back, looking just as excited to be dressed up as I was.

"So do you." She answered. "Come, I will finish your look." She said, pulling me back into the bathroom.

Quietly she began to my hair. I watched in the mirror as she brushed out my messy curls until my hair was just lightly wavy. She then pulled out a cylinder-like device and began to wrap my hair around it. She then plugged it into the wall and waited. After thirty or so seconds she left my hair fall, it was now shaped in a pretty curl. She did this to all my other hair as well. After she was finished she took two strands of hair to wrap up the rest of my hair in a twist, then spilled the remaining bit over my shoulder.

"Perfect." I said with another smile. She smiled back.

"I'm glad you like it." She then, then wrapped a red ribbon into my hair as well.

"What about you, what are you going to do with your hair?" I asked gesturing to her short blonde strands, which went a little past her ears.

"I'm…not sure." She said staring at it in the mirror. She seemed sad it was short, military protocol.

"I have an idea." I said, then quickly switched places with her.

"There's not veally a lot you can do vith it." She answered with a shrug.

"Let me try." I told her, and began to work on it. It _was_ short. My attempts and styling it was working though. After about ten minutes and finished.

"Ok, done." I said with a triumphant smile. She turned to the mirror and gave a delighted gasp.

"One thing I did learn how to do was French braid, my mother taught me." I said as she admired the two pretty braids on either side of her head. I selected a white ribbon with white flowers on the end and strung it into the new hairstyle.

"Perfect." She said mimicking me earlier. I smiled.

"OK, so how does this _makeup_ work?" I asked her. She smiled a little more slyly.

"I think you vill like this." She said, and bent down to open a cabinet.

"I think I will." I agreed sitting down once more.

Time skip….

Cir and I were at the front entrance to the dance, most everyone was already here, either walking in or already inside.

"Ready?" I asked her. She shook her head.

"Not at all." She answered, her accent thick with worry.

"James is in there waiting for you, you'll have a blast." I assured her, she gave me nervous but hopeful smile.

"And you are going vith Prowl, our tactician. He's Cybertronian, how do you feel about zat?" She asked suddenly curious.

"A little strange, but Prowl and I…have been through a lot. So it feels strange, but right. If that makes sense." I explained. She gave me a blank look.

"I don't understand you all ze time." She answered with an amused look. I smiled back and shrugged. Then together we entered the gala. We scanned the room for a minute until I saw James and pointing him out to Cir. She thanked me and made her way over to him. I saw them greet each other then James said something and Cir blushed. I smiled watching them. Suddenly warm hands touched my shoulders. I gave a small start and looked up. It was Prowl.

"Hi Tic-Tac." I said with a warm smile. He returned it easily and spun me around. He stared at me for a long moment with a thinking look in his warm blue gray eyes.

"What is it? " I asked, wondering what he was thinking about.

"I just learned the difference between pretty and beautiful." He said suddenly. My breath caught at his flawless words.

"I didn't know you were a romantic." I said with a smile. He offered me a hand to go dance. I gladly accepted it.

He placed his hands firmly on my waist and pulled me close, I wrapped my arms gently around his neck, his height being the only awkward problem. We slowly moved back and forth across the dance floor. I gave a quick second to take in how nice he looked in his white dress shirt and black dress pants. His hair was neatly messy, magically. He had finally dyed that small portion of his hair red, reminding me very much of his bot form. The blonde tips got in his eyes every now and again, but it was in a handsome sort of way.

I then listened to the lyrics to the slow song we were listening to.

 _Let your worry wash away_

 _Let us sing and dance_

 _Lose yourself in wild romance_

 _Feel this magic hold it close_

 _Get lost in eyes so deep_

 _Now we sing and now we dance_

 _We lose ourselves in wild romance._

We spun to the slow peaceful beat, and I relished in the moment. Tonight, was perfect. Perfect was hard to get.

 **I'm so so so sorry this was late, and I'm working on the next chapter already, thing is after this fic ends I'm taking a break for a while, 8** **th** **grade is a butt and I really am pressed for time. I'll let you know when I write my next one, I'm also working on my own novel called 'Design' and I have hopes to get it published, so if you see that book come in the recent year be sure to check it out.**

 **Again sorry for delay, until our next adventure my friends.**

 **Keep writing Keep reading Nova out ; )**


End file.
